Black Holes, and Stuff...

As was mentioned on Sunday, my bride and I went to a movie last weekend. I'll stay away from any more movie reviews, lest I offend, but I guess the best thing I have to say about it is that I'm sure glad it only cost a buck and a half to get in.

Actually, I knew it was a science fiction flick, and so I should have known better. But once our cinematic journey took us into a black hole, and the whole time-space continuum was broken, my brain started to hurt.

If you are a student of astronomy--or a fan of Star Trek--you probably know what a black hole is. Roughly speaking, it's a spot in the vastness of space which astronomers tell us acts like a giant vacuum or whirlpool sucking everything around it into the hole.

Up until recently, the only black holes that had been found were in galaxies millions of light years away from the earth. But about seven years ago astronomers made the startling announcement that a black hole had been found nearby in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Headlines proclaimed that inevitably our sun and all the planets around it--including earth--will be sucked right into it and everything will be gone. Uh oh.

Does that news bother you? Does it scare you just a little bit? Personally, I have mixed emotions. First of all it explains some things. Now I know where all those socks that never returned from our dryer have been going. And maybe this explains why our remote has been constantly disappearing.

But think about it. If someday we're going to be sucked up into this black hole, what's the point of all of this stuff we do anyway? Why bother, if the end is coming, and our destruction is inevitable?

Let me suggest that what you believe about the future, and where your hope ultimately lies, will greatly determine how you live until the end comes. Whether those astronomical events will actually occur I can't tell you. But I do know that there is a Creator of the heavens and earth--and black holes too--"who is over all and through all and in all" (Eph. 4:6). And He has proven, time and time again, that He can be trusted.

So I will rest well tonight, knowing that my future doesn't depend on a random event from a galaxy near or far, but it rests in the hands of a loving God, who has already shown how much I matter to Him, by the sacrifice He made for me when He sent Jesus to die for me.

"Cast all your cares on Him," the apostle Peter wrote, "because He cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7). That's enough for me, even if there's a black hole looming in my future. How about you?

I am praying for you, and I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.

--Pastor Ken

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