Our Lord is over All Things

Far away in the expanse of space the starforming Eagle Nebula M16 or IC 4703 shines brightly. It was discovered by Frenchman Philippe Loys de Cheseaux in June 1764. The nebula is located in the constellation Serpens, a mere speck in the Milky Way Galaxy, home of our solar system.
 
Inside the bowels of the Eagle Nebula stands a beautiful object - a stellar spire of gas and dust, brought to our view by a miracle of technology, the Hubble Space Telescope. The photograph of this spire is one of my favorite space-related photographs -  http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/entire_collection/pr2005012b/
 
As I began to learn more about the spire it floored me to learn that the spire is 90 trillion kilometers or 55.8 trillion miles in height!!! How is it that we can begin to grasp the immensity of something 55.8 trillion miles tall? Well, perhaps we can try some simple mathmatics and the modern automobile - one thousand one thousands is a million, one thousand million is a billion and one thousand billion is a trillion. That's it - 55,800 billions is 55.8 trillion and if I drive my pickup truck at 56 miles per hour for one trillion hours I could drive from the top to the bottom of the spire. To put that in clearer perspective, there are 8760 hours in a year so all I've got to do is drive my truck at 56 miles per hour for 114,155,251 years. 
 
Paul writes in Colossians 1:15-20 my favorite description of Jesus Christ :
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
 
Our Lord is in full command over all things, in heaven and on earth - even spires of dust and gas that are 55.8 trillion miles tall. Psalm 147:4-5 tells us that "He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. "
 
When I consider the power and majesty of our Heavenly Father as is clearly displayed in the Stellar Spire found in the Eagle Nebula, my faith in Him is strengthened, my fear of Him is deepened and my hope is assured.
 
In Christ,
 
LivingDust