Earth aka Tempest in a Teapot

It's really amazing, when you consider just how big our universe is....well, when you consider just how small Earth is within our universe. Our galaxy is 100,000 light years across. Do you know how far a light year is? Light travels at 186,000 miles/second. That's 11,160,000 miles/minute. That's 669,600,000 miles/hour. That's 16,070,400,000 miles/day. That's 5,865,696,000,000 miles/year. 5.8 trillion miles! That's one light year! Now multiply that by 100,000, and you see that our galaxy is 586,569,600,000,000,000 miles across!!!! Earth is less that 8,000 miles in diameter. That means it would require more than
73,321,200,000,000 "earths" to stretch from one end of our galaxy to the other. Do you realize how SMALL the Earth is? Does this help?
Do you know the difference between a million and a billion and a trillion? We here these numbers so often, usually related to government spending, and we start to be desensitized to just how different these numbers are.
Let's use time for a demonstration of the difference between a million, a billion, and a trillion.
Today is May 11, 2006. One million seconds ago, it was April 30, 2006.
One billion seconds ago it was approximately August 27, 1975.
One trillion seconds ago it was approximately 29,703 BC!!!!
A million is much less than a billion, which is hugely less than a trillion!
Light travels 5.8 trillion miles in a year!
And there are galaxies millions of light years away from Earth!
Does this start to give you an idea of the size of our universe? And the absolute insignificance of our little planet? And all the wars, hatred and killing on our planet over all sorts of essentially insignificant things?
The most amazing part of the whole thing is that God created the whole universe. He holds it in His hand.
This planet we live on, which to most people living here seems so important, and who fill there lives with pursuits of absolute frivolity and vanity, is nothing more than a speck of dust, supported in a ray of sunlight. Our lives are like a vapor. They are here for a moment, then disappear, as though they had never happened.
Ultimately we are all like little ants. We live our short lives moving things from here to there. When all is said and done, all we've really accomplished is we've moved a lot of things from place to place. All the materials were here before we were, and they remain after we leave. All we do is move them around.
So what's the point? What is the POINT????
The point is this.
We are not here by chance.
We live in a garden. There is no garden which does not have a gardener.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made.
The complexity and intricacy and beauty of the human body did not happen by chance.
We were created by the Creator of everything.
He put us here.
He designed this world to support us, provide for us, enlighten us, amaze us, and to reveal Himself to us.
He loves us.
He visited us, as one of us. He came as a man.
The Creator of the universe, who knows every star by name, who knows the number of hairs on our heads, who knows every thought and idle word we speak, He created us.
And He loves us.
He created us in His image.
He is a rational, loving, relational Creator, who gave us the capacity to love. Who created us for relationships.
He created us to show us His glory.
And we have rebelled against Him.
We have rejected Him. The Mighty One. The One who made everything! Who made us.
We people, like ants, reject the One who made us. Who provides for us. Who holds our very lives in His hands. Every breath we take is a gift from our patient and loving God.
He's giving us time. He's like a Shepherd, who lost a sheep. Does the Shepherd say to Himself, "Well, I've still got 99 sheep, shall I worry about the one who has gone astray?"
Any good shepherd would not abandon the one who was lost, but would go and search for him.
Our Creator is the Good Shepherd. He seeks His lost sheep. He does not want that even one should perish.
And yet we, like sheep, have all gone astray. We run from the One who created us, to whom we owe everything. We are very ungrateful, to say the least. And if we really understood what we will lose if we reject His love...I shudder to think.
If He gave us what we deserve we would suffer eternally. Never to know love again. Never to know warmth again, never to know peace again.
But He loves us.
He came to this Earth, this speck of dust in the universe, to demonstrate how much He loves us.
He did what no man could do.
He took upon Himself the punishment that we deserve for our pride. Our "independence". Our rebellion. Our hatred and contempt for the One who made us.
He satisfied the wrath of our Creator, receiving the punishment that we deserve, when He died on the cross.
God. From Heaven. Came to Earth. Humbled Himself. Washed the feet of His disciples. Endured humiliation, rejection, torture and death.
Why?
Because He does not desire that any of us should perish.
He provided a means that we can be made right in our relationship with Him. The God of the universe. We can have peace with Him. We can stand before Him, when we die, and not be destroyed. We can be the benefactors of His endless love and grace, and live with Him eternally.
Our God.
The Only God.
The One who created everything.
All He requires of us is that we trust in Him. That we believe in our hearts that He died for our sins, and confess with our mouths that Jesus is King!
That we give credit where credit is due.
That we say to Him, "Lord, I know that You are God, and I am not."
I will not waste my life in pursuit of things which I cannot keep.
I will not waste my life pursuing money, power, fame.
I will not waste my life trying to satisfy my ever-changing and insatiable appetites for material things, for physical pleasures.
I will live my life for You.
The One who made me. The One who sustains me. The One who knows me better than I know myself. The One who created me for a purpose.
I will live for You!