God&Neighbor

“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at.”
(Stephen Hawking)

“Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”
(Isaiah 40:26)

Sadly, the world lost Stephen Hawking, a brilliant author, cosmologist, and theoretical physicist, who died in his sleep early this morning. In addition to his professional accomplishments, Hawking lived with ALS and lived far beyond the expectations for anyone with the debilitating neurodegenerative disease with no known cure. He was diagnosed at age 21 and died at 76. Only 10% of ALS patients live longer than 10 years. Some consider this miraculous.

While Hawking ultimately rejected the existence of God, he was plagued by the same God-given curiosity we all have to wonder and explore, to look up instead of down for answers about the universe. In the end though, despite our heavenward gaze, many will miss the divine ordering of nature and God’s direction of humanity’s place within it. The apostle Paul in Acts 17 explained to the curious Athenians their own upward gaze: “God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us.”

Don’t miss Him!

(Related post: A Time to Dance: Finding Hope in a Season of Grief)