Outdoor Object Lesson 101: Galactic Significance

Key Text

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained; what is man, that you think of him? What is the son of man, that you care for him?" Psalm 8:3-4 (WEB)

Lesson

We live in a vast universe that makes us feel quite small. Have you ever looked up at the night sky and tried to count all the stars? It would be very hard because as you were counting the stars would move across the sky due to our planet spinning. When you look up at the night sky on an extra clear night, you can see a line of stars that is extra concentrated. This is known as the Milky Way. It is the galaxy we live in. Our own Milky Way galaxy is one quintillion km across or one followed by 18 zeros! That is equivalent to about 100,000 light years. When you look up at the river of stars in the sky that make up the Milky Way, you are looking at the center of it. Our planet is located in one of the outer arms.1

In pictures of the Milky Way our planet is too small to be seen, only the light from our sun is visible (see above). Our sun is just one of the many stars that make up the Milky Way. Scientists estimate that there are at least 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy alone.2 The most mind boggling part is that our galaxy is just one of millions we can see in space. Doesn’t that give you chills? A few years ago, scientists led by astronomer Bob Williams  pointed the Hubble Telescope at a dark spot in the sky. They wanted to see if it could see anything other telescopes could not. After being focused on one point for a few days, the scientists got a surprising picture. Instead of getting a black photo they got one covered in tiny points of light that at first glance might look like stars. It looked similar to a picture of any part of the night sky seen with the naked eye. As they analyzed the image, they realized those tiny points of light were actually other galaxies similar to our own Milky Way.

The implications are staggering! To get that image, the Hubble Telescope was looking at a fraction of the night sky. If you held one finger up at arms length and blocked a bit of the sky you would be blocking a bigger portion then the Hubble was looking at. In that one photo 3000 galaxies could be seen that no human had ever seen before! Each one of those galaxies holds dozens of stars like ours and perhaps hundreds of planets! Scientists everywhere were shocked by this discovery. It meant they had to increase the number of galaxies in the universe was much more than anyone thought. Indeed there are hundreds of billions of galaxies out there in the universe and many times more planets!3

Does that make you feel small? It sure makes me feel microscopic! It also makes me think about how big our God is. He created and sustains all those billions of galaxies spread out so far apart that we could barely understand the distance. Yet, he chose to send his one and only son, Jesus to this little planet to die for us. God could have started over after we sinned by creating life on another planet. He had plenty of options! But he chose the hard path of redeeming us. He did so because that is his nature. He loves us and wants to spend eternity with us. He wants us to have the chance to explore all those distant galaxies. He wants you and me to remember that even though we are tiny and live on one of billions of planets, he chose to forgive our sins and save us.

Questions

Will you except Jesus’ invitation?

Do you think other beings live in any of those other galaxies?

How would it affect your faith if we discover aliens on another planet?

Why do you think God chose to save us instead of just creating a new race of beings?

Sources
1: Nola Taylor Redd, “Milky Way Galaxy: Facts About Our Galactic Home,” Space.com, (November 14, 2017), accessed June 2, 2019 from https://www.space.com/19915-milky-way-galaxy.html.
2: Elizabeth, Howell, “How Many Stars Are In The Milky Way,” Space.com, (March 30, 2018), accessed June 2, 2019 from https://www.space.com/25959-how-many-stars-are-in-the-milky-way.html.
3. Nadia Drake, “When Hubble Stared at Nothing for 100 Hours,” National Geographic online, (April 24, 2015), accessed June 2, 2019 from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2015/04/24/when-hubble-stared-at-nothing-for-100-hours/.

Written  by David F. Garner
Photo credit: Nick Risinger via www.wikimedia.org

Christian Outdoor Object Lesson 48: Biggest Universe

Key Text

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained; what is man, that you think of him? What is the son of man, that you care for him?” Psalms 8:3-4 (WEB)


Lesson

Note: Today's lesson is best illustrated under a clear night sky or with a picture of space.



When we look around our earth, it seems pretty big. But when we look up to the sky, out into space, it's vastness makes us realize how small we really are. Scientists continue to make new discoveries in space that stretch our imagination beyond anything we thought possible. Take the sun for example. You can block out the entire sun from your view with one finger. But it is actually much bigger than earth. One million earths could fit inside the sun! And the sun is just an average size star. Distances in space are mind boggling also. If you could fly to Pluto, it would take more than 800 years to arrive.1 And you would still be in our own solar system.

Have you ever wondered what the biggest thing in the universe is? That is hard to pin down because bigger things are being discovered every few years. Currently, the biggest known star is labeled R136a1. It is between 265 to 315 times heavier than our own sun! It is estimated to be about 4.4 nonillion pounds (2 nonillion kg), or 4.4 with 30 zeroes after it. I think we need a bigger unit of measurement for determining the weight of things in space. That's too many zeros.

But wait, there are still galaxies to consider. We live in the Milky Way galaxy which is about 100,000 light years from one side to the other. One light year is the distance light can travel in one year which is about 6 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). So light has to travel at that speed for 100,000 years to get from one side of our galaxy to the other. And you thought it was far to your friends house across town! The single biggest object known is not a single galaxy, but a cluster of galaxies. Technically called a protocluster, SPT2349, is the single biggest thing we have ever seen. This leviathan is still in the process of growing to its full size so we do not know how far across it will get. But at present it is composed of 14 super-galaxies all colliding together. It weights far more than anything else in the universe coming it at about 12 to 15 quadrillion times the weight of our sun.2

Just think what a big God we serve. There are so many other planets out there, yet he is concerned with our tiny little one. God must truly love you and me to pay so much attention to us. It makes me so thankful. How about you? Like King David, I have to marvel at why God even concerns himself with us. I cannot understand it. But it tells me that you and I matter to him. It may be difficult to believe that he is with us. But we can look up and remember that the God who made all of space wants to be with us and will take care of us.



Questions

Does this lesson make you feel important or small and insignificant? Why?

If you had the choice would you give up your life to save some small planet with a few people who didn’t even like you as Jesus did?

Since Jesus saved us despite our trivial place in the universe, how should we treat others?


Sources

1. "10 Facts about Space!" National Geographic Kids online. Retrieved March 10, 2017 from
https://www.natgeokids.com/za/discover/science/space/ten-facts-about-space/.
2.  Adam Mann. "What's the Most Massive Object in the Universe?" May 10, 2018. Livescience.com. Retrieved February 18, 2018 from https://www.livescience.com/62530-biggest-object-in-universe.html.

Written By David F. Garner
Photo Credit: WikiImages via www.pixabay.com

Christian Outdoor Object Lesson 23: The Fingerprint of God

Photo Credit: Stefan Schweihofer (username: stux)

Key Verse

“The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork.” Psalms 19:1 (WEB)

Lesson

What evidence is there that God really created the universe, you, and me? How do we know that God deserves our praise? Sometimes it seems hard to know where everything came from. We hear all sorts of ideas about where we came from and how the world got here. Thankfully, God did not leave us to guess about these questions. Have you ever noticed all the beauty in nature? Why is there beauty? Science exists to tell us how things work. But religion helps us find out why. The Bible tells us that God made everything to show us his glory, or his wonder and majesty. It also tells us that he created this earth for our pleasure and to show us he loves and cares for us. That is why beauty exists. That is why everything exists.

Have you ever looked at something in nature and thought, “that could not have happened by accident? It must have been made and designed.” We know when we find a plastic bottle on the ground that it was made by humans. We also know someone threw it there instead of in a trashcan. We understand that it did not grow there naturally.

In nature we see evidence of a designer. Once such evidence is the Golden Ratio (a.k.a. the Fibonacci Sequence). In math this is a series of numbers where the next number is the sum of the two proceeding numbers. (Example: 1,2,3,5,8,13, etc.) It can get very complex. But the Golden Ratio translates into a spiral pattern we see often. It appears all around us in nature from the smallest to the biggest things. It is seen on the pinecone bottom, snail shells, the shape of ocean waves, even the spiral of galaxies. It can be seen in the center of flowers in the composite family such as the sunflower. The Golden Ratio has been called the fingerprint of God because it appears from the smallest atom to the biggest galaxy. It is like God’s signature in creation. And best of all, it adds beauty.

Psalms 19:1 says that the heavens declare God’s glory and show how powerful he is. He is the God of creation; the One who made everything else that exists. No one is greater. That is why he deserve our praise. Romans 1:20 tells us that nature points to the all powerful God. It shows he is there and that he cares for us. So we have no excuse to think he is not there or that he does not take care of us. God loves each of us. And he made everything good you can see just to prove it.

Questions

How do you see design displayed in nature?

How do you think God feels when we destroy his creation?

What do you think God thinks about all the ways his creation has been messed up since Adam and Eve sinned?

In what ways can we show God our thanks and praise for what he made?