A “mission to touch the sun”

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else” (C. S. Lewis).

NASA launched a spacecraft yesterday that will get seven times closer to the sun than previous spacecraft. One NASA scientist called it a mission to “touch the sun.”

The Parker Solar Probe will cover 96 percent of the 93 million miles between us and our closest star. It will make twenty-four close approaches to the sun over the next seven years.

We’re obviously interested in the sun since life on our planet depends on it. But frankly, our sun is nothing special in the larger universe. While it would take one million Earths to fill it, the sun is just average compared to other stars in our galaxy. Betelgeuse, for instance, is about seven hundred times bigger and about 14,000 times brighter.

In total, scientists estimate that there are one billion trillion stars in the known universe. And God “gives to all of them their names” (Psalm 147:4).

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). How is this declaration in the heavens relevant to the hard choices we must make on earth?

The true test of faith

It’s easy to obey God when we understand why we should. The test of faith comes when we are called to step beyond what we understand or even want to be true.

If you’re like most of us, you’re facing such a step today. God is asking you to do something or stop doing something, to forgive someone or to seek forgiveness, to stand courageously for his word and will in a skeptical culture, but it’s hard. If it were easy, you would already have done what he asks.

Today’s Daily Article was born in a statement I read yesterday in My Utmost for His Highest: “There are stages in life when there is no storm, no crisis, when we do our human best; it is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely.”

It is far easier to trust…