Brian Cox is a professor of particle physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester and the Royal Society Professor for Public Engagement in Science. I follow him on social media.

Cox is not a Christian so he doesn’t see the cosmos through a biblical lens. However, this doesn’t minimize his brilliance and perspective of natural science.

In an interview, he was asked,

“What’s the one fact that blows your mind most about the universe?”

Cox replied,

“There are many things but one thing is the size and scale of it.”

He shared,

“By way of calculations, we can estimate there are some two trillion galaxies in the universe. (He stopped, and for emphasis, said,) ‘That’s two thousand billion!’

He continued,

“Based on what we can observe, our Milky Way Galaxy is about the average size – some bigger, some smaller. And each galaxy has between 100 and 400 billion stars. It takes light (traveling at 186,000 miles per second) over 100,000 years to cross our galaxy. The nearest star to earth is our sun. The next nearest star is Proxima Centauri, 4.25 light years (25 trillion miles) away.”

Then he mentions this mind-blowing universe is expanding at an unimaginable rate of speed into…? Into what? (This is where my brain really begins to implode.)

Cox’s words took my mind immediately to a little book I have in my library titled, Cosmology: A Very Short Introduction, by Peter Coles.

Describing Hubble’s Law, Coles writes,

“The Hubble Law basically means that galaxies twice as far away from the observer are moving away twice as fast. Those three times as far move three times as fast, and so on.”

Now, consider the following.

This Christmas, when you look at that Nativity scene in your home with the tiny baby, helpless and completely dependent on his parents.

That baby is the same One who is expanding the universe by his word and took up residence on our tiny planet. “The Playwright wrote himself into the play” is how one author put it. All for one single purpose:  to suffer and die – all for love for you, and me. (This is the theme of John’s prologue in his gospel; 1:1-18)

I read once,

“When we consider the brightness of the sun, consider its Maker.”

Likewise,

When we consider the size of the universe, consider its Maker.

That’s the baby in the manger. 

“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name… This is what the LORD says:… I am the LORD, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens,…” – Psalm 147:4; Isaiah 44:24

Nick

**Below is the Helix Nebula, often referred to as “the eye of God.”