so small and insignificant, but not really

Okay, I've written about this before but I'll expound upon my thoughts. Because not too long ago I watched a program on television about space and they had graphics that depicted our galaxy and then zoomed further out from that and so on...

There are those whom believe our planet is roughly 4.5 billion years old - I tend towards being one of them. Such discoveries have been relatively recent due to modern science. I've grown up hearing such postulations as humans crossed the land bridge that once spanned the Bering Strait only about 10,000 years ago, and thus beginning the inhabitance of the Americas. And it was roughly 500 years ago that the idea that the earth wasn't actually the center of the universe was started (at least in Europe). It's not difficult to imagine that that's what people thought up until then: one look up at the sky and it was obvious that both the sun and the moon went around the Earth, right?

And now we all know (?) that the earth is just a relatively small planet of several that revolve around our sun, which is a relatively small star in our Milky Way galaxy, a star which is one of billions of stars in our galaxy. Whew! That's a tough one to wrap my mind around. The talk of the concept of being light-years away from something else, such as the nearest star. Which is one of billions... I can't do it, I can't wrap my mind around that.

But then there's more. It's said that the Milky Way galaxy is just one of billions of galaxies. Frankly, millions or billions, unlike money, the distinction is hard to make. Still, yes, that's with a 'b' instead of an 'm.' Have you seen some of those awe-inspiring photographs taken by the Hubble? They've reduced galaxies into clouds of dust, with those 'dust' particles ostensibly representing stars? Could that be right? No, I'm really asking, is that right? And I suppose if it were possible to go out far enough and take a picture, then it could look like the galaxies themselves are reduced to being the 'dust' particles in some large clouds in the universe. What??

And what is this about using the phrase 'known universe' as opposed to the 'unknown universe'? I guess it's science's way of admitting straight off that there could be much more out there that they haven't a clue about. Here's a thought: what if the 'known universe' is one of billions of universes? No, strike that - for now.

So here we are with our earthly mortalities. I've been wondering lately (and hoping it's actually true) that just like our somewhat recent (mere hundreds of years) understanding of our planet and it's minuscule place in the universe, what if our time here on earth is similarly related to our entire existence as spirits? What if our human understanding compared to our total knowledge is also a tiny fraction? We've tended to put a human twist into our attempts to make sense of the meaning of life and death (would God really have us choose sides so as to have winners and losers - an eternal consequence of a choice we make on what could be a very brief sojourn here on earth?).

In addition, I've read about how on 'the other side' there is no concept of time. That's a neat thought. And considering how small we are compared to the universe, who really knows where our time here stands in the entire cycle of life? What if our births here aren't even the beginning of our lives?

********

It just occurred to me when I first started thinking like this. It was when our mother was dying that my brother planted this idea in my head - that maybe our lives here are just a small part of our entire existences. Because the thought that her 'life' was simply over was too unbearable for me. And the thought that she could be with our late father again is so comforting. I guess making the comparison to space makes the idea even more, well, awesome!