My husband and I belong to a small group of fellow Christians where we explore various Bible studies and discuss topics relevant to our faith—all the while enjoying friendships and community with people we’ve grown to love over the years. Recently someone asked what makes us feel loved by God. My first thought, after having lived with my Physics-teaching husband for so many years, was Jupiter.
While there are many reasons to think the Creator of this earth wants us to know Him through His creation, to delight in the many gifts of color and beauty and nearly endless variety, it’s the fine tuning of the Universe that impresses me most. Without planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune to act as shields for us against meteors and comets, earth would suffer life-ending impacts on a fairly regular basis. It’s just one of the many miracles that sustain us, like the Moon regulating our tides, or the size of our sun and our placement in the solar system, the right amount of solar wind, earth’s exact tilt and orbit around the parent star (our sun), the right thickness of the earth’s crust, the right amount of oxygen/nitrogen, the right amount of oceans and continents for advance life to develop, and on and on too many things to list here (not to mention well beyond my comprehension!).
It’s enough for me to know that Jupiter, at just the right distance because of its size and gravitational pull, acts as a shield for us here on earth. Just one more lovely example of how God placed us here to enjoy the gift of life, to discover His love on this testing ground before joining Him in eternity.
Next time you look up at a starry sky, thank God for His love. Jupiter is just one huge gift from our Creator to us.
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