Created For You and Me

Created for You and Me

I sat in a chair, leaned my head back and stared at the stars that sparkled in the
night sky. You’ll find me in that position on most clear nights. The heavens and stars
have fascinated me ever since I was a boy and man first landed on the moon. On this
particular night, I watch the space station pass half way across the sky and slowly fade
to nothing, as it entered the shadow of the earth. I pictured the men and women who
occupied the station, looking out the window at the most amazing view in human history.

I wish I could be one of them, but it is not to be, not in my lifetime.

In the last couple of years, man has discovered evidence of water on the moon; on
Mars; Saturn’s moon, Enceladus; and on Jupiter’s moon, Europa. With water, life could
be present on those distance bodies. Recently, while viewing a far-away galaxy, scientists
detected the signature of hydrogen and oxygen – the elements of water.

Each day brings new discoveries of planets circling other stars. The latest
satellites have been designed to detect the wobble of a star caused by an orbiting planet
or the dimming of its light as a planet crossed in front of it. So far they have discovered
huge giants like Jupiter and Saturn that orbit too close to their parent stars to support life,
but in a few years, they will have enough data to detect hundreds or thousands of planets.

Is there life out there? I would say there probably is, but nothing like we have
seen before. We’ll probably never know. The distances are too vast. The fastest probe
ever sent on a mission is New Horizons, which was launched on a journey to Pluto in
2006 and isn’t expected to arrive at its destination until 2015 – nine and a half years after
launch.

The nearest star to earth is 4.2 light years away. To travel there and back and
leave time to explore, it would take ten years, if we travelled at the speed of light.
At that speed, we would arrive back on earth at the same time our message arrived telling
earth, “Mom! I’m coming home!”

Of course, this would also depend on not hitting any space debris along the way.
If we struck a small rock, while travelling at the speed of light, we’d be destroyed. At
that speed, I doubt there would be time to detect an obstacle and be able to avoid it.

The universe is massive. The furthest object from Earth detected so far is about
14 billion light years away. Our own galaxy is 100,000 light years across and contains
about one billion stars. Unless man invents a new way of travel, the distance stars and
planets will remain dots in the sky.

I’m not discouraged though. I can still dream of the day man goes beyond our
solar system and into the unknown. What wonders we will they see?

The stars continued to twinkle as I contemplated God’s creation. They say the
universe never ends. This concept boggles my mind. Everything has an end, but if the
universe does have an end, what is beyond it? It can’t be nothing? Is it a wall? If so,
what is beyond the wall? There’s no answer.
How could the vastness of the universe just happen from nothing? It didn’t. God
created it for you and me, and I am going to enjoy it as much as I can.

Michael T. Smith

Story ID:	5724
Written by:	Michael Timothy Smith (bio, link, contact, other stories)
Story type:	Story
Location:	Caldwell Idaho USA
Year:	2010
Person:	Us