06.12. Celebration of Creation
Celebration of Creation Colossians 1:15-22
One of the greatest testimonies to the Creator is the creation. The celebration of creation is the celebration of our Creator. Any man in his right mind who looks at creation cannot help but praise the creator. When we look at a great painting or a work of art we inquire into who the artist was who created the masterpiece. When we look at a great work of architecture we inquire as to the geniuses behind it. We easily give praise for the skill and creativity wroth at mans hands. We should even more so give glory and praise to the creations Creator. Psalms 19:1 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God..." Psalms 97:6 states, "The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory."
Romans 1:20 declares, "...the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen; being understood by the things that are made..."
Before man was mapping out the stars in his nautical charts and attempting to name and number them God had named them. Psalms 147:4-5 shouts out to us, "He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them by their names. Great is the Lord: and of great power; his understanding is infinite."
Someone has apply said, "The heavens made their best revelations before telescopes were invented...the flowers knew how to preach divinity before man knew how to dissect and botanize them." (Hudson, H.N., as quoted in 6000 Sermons Illustrations, Elon Foster compiler, Baker House, p.470)
Our text says that by Christ all things, both visible and invisible, were created. Colossians 1:17 says, "...by him all things consist." We can look at the creation around us to glimpse in just a small way what and awesome, majestic God we serve. We can see the "Celebrate of Creation" is the celebration of our Father. Allow me lead us in celebration of our God by seeing the vastness of creation and the minuteness of it.
I- VASTNESS OF CREATION!
A- Our Special Planet:
If there was nothing more than the earth to show us God we could see His splendor everywhere. The circumference of our earth is 25,020 miles. In our time we have become a global community but our earth is still massive. Let me do some comparisons for us. A train that traveled day and night at 25 MPH would require six weeks to go around the earth. A tunnel straight through the earth from England to New Zealand would be nearly eight thousand miles long. Our earth is a wonder of creation. Allow me to give us a quote to show this. "If the Earth was only one percent closer to the sun we wouldn’t be here to worry about any, ’greenhouse effect.’ And if the Earth were only one percent further from the sun, there would be plenty of snow and ice on Earth, but no one around to ski on it. The distance from the Earth to sun is very precisely set to allow life to live comfortable here. The chances of this happening without design are nearly impossible..." (Bartz, Paul A., Letting God Create Your Day, Vol 1, No. 1., Bible Science Association, 1989. p.47.) B- Our Special Star:
Our star is a very special star. We are 93,000,000 (93 Million) miles from this special star. There are may stars out there approximately the same size as our sun. However most are not as stable in there output as our sun. "Our suns output varies by only about one-tenth of a percent in its energy output." (Ibid.)
(That is 1/10th of 1% which is not much.) Life around most of the stars would be impossible even if planets did exist because of the variation in their output.
C- Our Solar System:
NASA placed a lander the planet Mars. The rocket that carried this lander, the size of a little red wagon, traveled some 30,000,000 miles to Mars. It took almost a year to arrive at our nearest planet. Our Solar system is a great testimony to our Creator and His majesty. Ben Franklin had a model of our solar system in his office and when an unbelieving friend saw it and was impressed he asked who made it. Ben replied, "No one, it just happened." "Impossible" said his friend. Ben replied, "Well you say that this universe of which this is just a poor representation just happened." How vast is our solar system from the Sun to Pluto? The solar system is so large that it is IMPOSSIBLE to create a scaled model of it. The drawings in science textbooks and the models, such as the one in Ben Franklin’s office, are not to scale. Let me illustrate how massive just our solar system is. If and orange represents our sun (if the sun were the size of an orange) and a grain of sand represents the earth the grain of sand would be 30 feet away. If Pluto were another smaller grain of sand it would be 10 city blocks away.
D- Marvelous Milky Way!
We live in a galaxy that is called the Milky Way. It is one of literally billions of known galaxies. Light travels at 186,000 feet per second which is 700,000,000 (700 million) MPH. For light to cross the Milky Way would take 100,000 years. Let me illustrate this also. If the thickness of one sheet of paper represents the distance from earth to the sun (93,000,000 miles) it would take a stack 71 feet high to represent the distance to Alpha Centuri our nearest star. To cover the Milky Way the stack would be 310 miles high. To cover the know universe a stack would have to be 31,000,000 (31 million) miles high. Let me give us another example. If our sun were hollow, 1,300,000 earth would fit inside it. There is a star called Antares if it were hollow would hold 64,000,000 of our suns. Still there is another star in the consolation of Hercules which would hold 100,000,000 stars the size of Antares if it were hollow. And still if that is not enough the largest know star, Epsilon, could easily swallow up several million stars the size of the one in Hercules! Remember there are estimates of 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) stars in the Milky Way and God had all of them named. Genesis 40:26 shouts loudly "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power..." The vastness of creation is a testimony to the awesomeness of our God.
II- MINUTENESS OF CREATION
If the vastness of our creation is not enough to show the awesomeness of God than the minuteness testifies as loudly. How minute (small) is creation. We know that all material matter is made up of atoms. The atom has a nucleus which is comprised of protons, neutrons, and electrons. The electrons circle the nucleus must like the earth circle our sun except in a very erratic pattern. The nucleus of the atom is make up of mostly empty space. How much space? Allow me to illustrate. If we use the Houston Superdome as an illustration of the outer shell of the electron then the nucleus would be a ping pong ball laying on the 50 yard line, some 10,000 times smaller. We cannot begin to understand the smallness of these atoms. Allow me to offer a couple of more illustration to show the glory of God.
A- Ball Point Pen Tip:
On the tip of a ballpoint pen there are enough atoms so that if soldiers of an army were each given one atom and marched four abreast it would take them 20,000 years top pass by in review.
B-Human Hair:
The World Book Encyclopedia says an atom is more than a million times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. The smallest speck that can be seen under an ordinary microscope contains more than 10,000,000,000 (10 billion) atoms. It would take 25 trillion protons laid side by side to make an inch. In a cubit inch of copper there are more protons than there are drops of water in the oceans of the world or grains of sand on the seashores.
III- WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE!
The glory of the galaxies and the wonder of the atoms are still dim in comparison to the miracle of living organisms. The smallest insect on earth is made up of millions of living cells. The average man is made up of 75 trillion cells. The living cells each are more complex that the most complicated computers on earth today. The body’s ability to heal itself is another wonder of the creation of God. The heart that pumps our blood is the most efficient possible model. The human hand with a thumb can do some of the most complex movements and work with amazing skill without us taking notice or giving it a conscious thought. The brain contains our senses and is beyond comprehension. The eye of a human is an amazing thing to behold. Still there is the eye of a camel that has a clear covering to protect it from the sand. We do not know much about even the planet we live on and the body we inhabit but the more we learn the more we see that creation is in celebration of the Creator.
Remember Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
Psalms 97:6 The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory.
Romans 1:20 "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."