We love wrappings. Our clothing styles, our homes, autos and even our activities attest to it. We are so over-wrapped that some feel they’ve been stuffed by an image making machine. If you are feeling overstuffed, this should give you some other stuff to think about.
STAR POWER
“Great Sun!”, I proclaimed as I roamed the room, stepping carefully over the lengths of adding machine tape strewn across the floor. This day, my sixth grade class was busy rearranging the solar system. Imagine the sense of power and excitement as all the planets were pulled into one straight line!
In their models, the innermost planet, Mercury, was only three and a half inches from the Sun. Earth nearly tripled that distance at a little more than nine inches and to visit a Martian, you had to travel five more inches down the tape. I started to see quizzical looks when, at fifty inches, giant Jupiter was spotted. We’re not in Kansas anymore! Another twenty-six feet and tiny Pluto found its mark. The dismayed students watched as I strung the models across the room. No mistake. All the models matched. The student’s view of the world had stretched, just a little.
Like planets, our Sun also has neighbors. “How long would your paper model have to be to include Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to our Sun?” A silence, deep as space, fell across the room as I gave the answer: “25 miles.” Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has 400 billion of these stars!
Who among us has not paused in a busy world, to ponder the meaning of life and our meager significance in this starry night? Perhaps a certain young couple, two thousand years ago, shared the same questions as they gazed skyward, hoping for an answer. The answer they received is more profound than all the lessons of the cosmos.
As you travel your roads this year, take a moment to scan the heavens and share in a love that can hold a universe. It could bring a gleam to your eye and just might fill your life with star power.