Meditation 3 for the Advent

Two stars shine through the centre of a ring of cascading dust in this image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The star system is named DI Cha, and while only two stars are apparent, it is actually a quadruple system containing two sets of binary stars. As this is a relatively young star system it is surrounded by dust. The young stars are moulding the dust into a wispy wrap. The host of this alluring interaction between dust and star is the Chamaeleon I dark cloud — one of three such clouds that comprise a large star-forming region known as the Chamaeleon Complex. DI Cha's juvenility is not remarkable within this region. In fact, the entire system is among not only the youngest but also the closest collections of newly formed stars to be found and so provides an ideal target for studies of star formation.

Reveal: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the Beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. –John 1:1-3

Observations: Why would John characterize Jesus as the Word? It is because Jesus communicates God, He speaks God, He says that if we have seen Him we have seen the Father. He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being (Heb. 1:3), and more than this, John tells us that Jesus was and has always been God Himself. The universe and all that is in it is a created thing: It had a beginning. So the universe has not always been, and was made by and through Jesus—the Word. Everything in existence that we can experience, He has made.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for creating this vast and glorious universe. As the billions of light years of the extent of it is beyond my comprehension, so must You be as its creator. How You could be so powerful and imaginative and lavish as to create this vast abundance of beauty and balance is a testament to Your greatness, power, and majesty. And that You would do so, knowing that the inhabitants of this little planet would presume to reject and betray You, can only be explained by Your great love and compassion, more vast and abundant than the universe You created. Teach me to remember to be in awe of Your great love when I consider the heavens, the works of Your hands, the moon and the stars that You have ordained, their vastness and beauty, and all the glorious variety here on earth for our enjoyment.

Exercise: That anything exists is because of God’s love. That what He made is beautiful and that He has given us the ability to comprehend beauty are because of His love. Be reminded of His love when the beauty of His creation is revealed to you, and of the vastness of His love when you consider the vastness of His universe.

Click here to read Meditation 2 for the Advent.