Neville Turley

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”  Psalm 8:3-4 (KJV)

Standing on a hilltop in Sutherland in the Karoo, I found myself at one with the author of Psalm 8.

The harshness of the dry landscape around me was softening with the setting of the sun.  Immediately facing me was the observatory housing the largest single optic telescope in the southern hemisphere (SALT). Here astronomers from participating countries observe and research the galaxies.

However, one does not need a telescope, one only needs to look up to be stunned by the beauty of God’s glittering panorama of stars. I found myself asking the same question of God that the psalmist asked centuries earlier. What is man?

Scientists working on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, USA believe they have found the answer after researching some 200,000 stars in the Milky Way - man is a combination of chemical elements!

Our bodies contain 60 elements crucial to our existence and 97 percent of these elements are also found in varying proportions in the stars they have analysed.  Their conclusion: we are made of stardust and when our planet dies, we will become stardust again.

It is not surprising that human beings have much in common with the heavenly bodies. God made the entire universe. There is one fundamental difference between human beings and the stars above us. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”(Genesis 2:7 (KJV))

We are not stardust, we are living souls. Stars are doomed to die. But we have been created in the image of God, and his Son has redeemed us from our sins. Through no merit of our own we are part of the family of God and will live for all eternity. To God be the glory.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, we are so unworthy of your calling. Grant us grace and strengthen us through the Holy Spirit that we may serve you faithfully for Jesus sake. Amen