To Infinity and Beyond

Last night, the TV show 60 Minutes included a feature on the Hubble telescope, which has been transmitting photos of space since its launch in 1990. One detail that caught my attention was described by NASA astrophysicist Amber Straughn, who noted what happened when the telescope was pointed at a seemingly empty, black patch of sky directly above the Big Dipper. After staring for days into what seemed to be a deep, dark void, the Hubble telescope revealed that the region includes thousands of galaxies—not just stars, but galaxies. The interviewer, Bill Whitaker, asked, “Is it that Hubble just stares into that dark spot until the light penetrates and reveals itself?” Straughn replies, “That’s exactly what happens. It’s sometimes many, many, many days of just staring at one part of the sky and allowing the photons to collect on your detector.”

It appears that the Hubble telescope, in addition to revealing the secrets of the universe, has also revealed a secret of the spiritual life: Light always exists, but sometimes we have to sit for many days and stare into the darkness until the light penetrates our limited vision and reveals itself. It takes patience to sit long enough for “the photons to collect on our detector,” but eventually we learn to trust that Christ our Light is always there, even when it doesn’t seem to be. Thus our attempts to learn more about the far reaches of the universe inversely are teaching us about the inner depths of our life in God. As Scripture tells us over and over, the beginning of wisdom is awe at the workings of the Lord!