In a Ray of Sunlight.

How big the Universe really is and how significant we really are.

One of the most profound pictures ever taken was from the Voyager spacecraft. Before turning off the cameras forever, Carl Sagan talked NASA into taking one final series of pictures.

He met with a lot of resistance. Pointing the cameras back was a waste of time and resources. There was nothing to be learned by looking back.

But Carl pushed, and Carl won.

They pointed the camera back and took a series of exposures showing our solar system from the very edge.

And lost in a ray of sunshine is a Pale Blue Dot. It’s the Earth.

They were mistaken about nothing to learn.

Every human being who has ever lived has been on that Pale Blue Dot. Every person you ever read about in the history books, every person you read about in People magazine. Every king or queen that ever lived or lives. Every world leader has or lives there. Every person you’ve never heard of. has been on that dot.

Maybe that’s why we push ourselves to become rich and famous. Maybe that’s why we strive. Why?

Because the Pale Blue Dot mocks us. It reminds us we’re not even ants in this universe. We feel insignificant. Don’t believe me? Quick, name a single a Mayan King. Of name at least a couple of pan handlers in New York City.

But we’re a lot more than something that can’t be seen from the edge of the solar system.

We’re made in God’s image, heirs to creation. He has us inscribed in every thought. And he’s not sitting out there with the Voyager probe looking back. He’s right here. He’s a part of us. He knows the name of every Mayan King who ever ruled. He knows the name of every pan handler in New York City. and if you see time as it really is, they’re not dead. In his mind, somehow, they still exist.

In Him we live and move and have our meaning. (Acts 12:28 NIV)

Maybe that’s the point of the picture. A reminder that while we might think we’re invisible, we’re not.

We’re here. God see’s us all.

And while we’re here, we can make a difference.

Note: This year, Voyager will reach a point where it’s a light-day away from Earth. What that means is that a signal from here will take twenty-four hours to reach it, and if it responds, twenty-four hours for us to receive that reply. It’s taken Voyager almost five decades to reach that point. Somewhere within the next four or five years, it will lose the ability to talk to us. It will continue its voyage out to the stars. In 300 years, it will reach the Oort cloud, a shell of comets that orbit our sun at long range.

40000 years from now, it will finally come within a few light-years of some of the nearest stars.

That’s a long time.

But with God’s help, we’ll still be here.