"Exploration......................"

About a year ago Sam’s had a book by Stephen Hawking on sale for twelve dollars. It had lots of pictures, was a hard-back copy, and the title “A Brief History of Time: The Universe in a Nutshell” led me to think the average mind might be able to, at least somewhat, grasp its content. The enigma of all that’s out there has long provoked my curiosity as well, so I bought a copy and stepped into waters that are, literally, “over my head”. The author might as well be speaking in Chinese. If the illustrations succeed in giving at least some minute understanding of some particular subject he’s addressing, the caption beneath (i.e. “The intense gravitational field of an orbiting black hole rips matter from the companion star and creates an accretion disc which spirals in towards the event horizon”) leaves me scratching my head, lost in space. Here and there, however, digesting chapters in small doses, I have underlined bits and pieces of the cosmologist’s explanations in an attempt to hopefully capture knowledge. Surely this is the nuts and bolts of my existence. This is the whole enchilada! If Hawking has not yet encountered the God who created it all, that doesn’t dismiss my faith nor give me reason to ignore the heavens. Indeed, it was humorous to read this morning of a conference organized in 1971 by the Jesuits in the Vatican, one where, seeking advice on such matters, they invited some of these scientists to attend. At the end, the participants were granted audience with the Pope. He told them it was “all right to study the evolution of the universe after the big bang, but not to inquire into the big bang, itself, because that was the moment of Creation and therefore the work of God.” Me? I’m more in line with Ravi Zacharias, who seeks truth, but then demands relevance, putting the former in a state of always being beyond us and the latter as an inevitable “next step” letting us know that, whatever “facts” we think we possess, we haven’t yet begun to realize it in its entirety. Jesus said “Follow Me”. Somehow I don’t think he meant I could stop at the third pew back from the front, satisfied with John 3:16 declaring my faith…….