as if God needed anything...

I searched the internet and figured out the earth we live on weighs about 5.972 sextillion (1,000 trillion) metric tons. That’s 5,972,000,000,000,000, 000,000 tons.

It has a circumference of 24,901.55 miles and holding about 6.66 billion people.

Try to get your arms around those numbers.

The sun is about 93 million miles away from earth. While the earth is maintaining its perfect distance from sun (though it's orbiting the sun in an elliptical shape), its rotating in a constant speed (23 hours and 56 minutes and 04.09053 seconds) in its own axis as well. Among these numbers I want to throw one more, which kind of blew my mind away: The star that is closest to earth (after sun) is about 25 trillion miles away. Remember, there are countless number of stars including those which cannot be seen with naked human eyes.

In other words, we have no clue what is out there!

With the limited human intelligence this is what the scientists have figured out so far: the nebula (or the galaxy) containing an average of 100 billion (10¹¹) solar masses, ranging in diameter from 1,500 to 300,000 light-years.

[1 Light Year = 5878171478565.179 Miles]

Okay, okay, I wouldn't even try to do the math :)

This is just a little bit of information about the universe around us, but this puts me in profound veneration for the Being who created these and placed it in its own perfect places. I would stop and take a deep breath and try to sink this that the Most High created these with mere words in His mouth - 'let there be...'.

I can’t imagine the vastness, the unknowns, the infinity, the awesomeness of the universe. When I stand still and look up in the sky, I feel small. I fall into an unexplainable ecstasy and overwhelming reverence when I look at the diversity in His creation from the tiny shrubs in my backyard to the 5.972 sextillion metric tons 'mud-ball' hanging in nothingness.

Let’s say anything above the blue sky is part of heaven. This is what the Bible says:

'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.’ – God (Acts 7:49)

As a man with two legs on the ground at a time, I am not occupying more than a square feet of ground. Out of my foolish ignorance and arrogance, can I even think that God needs something from me, whose throne is heaven itself?

"However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says: " 'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things?' - Acts 7:48-50

What kind of a building can I possibly build to invite God to live in it?

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.
And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else." - Apostle Paul (Acts 17:24-25)

Does it sound like a blow to prideful man who thinks God needs his money, service, skill, education, ministry or time?

God do not need us or our service, but here is the good news: He wants us! Yes, the same God who said 'Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool' wants to have a relationship with us! Why would He leave His glory in heaven, come down to earth as a dirty carpenter, born in a manger in a tiny town called Bethlehem? So that we can relate to Him! Even the lowest of the lowly among us can relate to Him.

Apostle Paul continues in Acts 17,

From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.
God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

That is what God wants from us - that we would seek Him and find Him and to be His offspring! And live in Him, move in Him and have our being in Him!

STOP trying to serve Him; just be in Him! That's enough! He will do the rest... Just be His precious child. Stand still and know that He is God. Rest in Him. Relax...

(Happy holidays to all. We are off to New York for few days to visit family and friends...)