For those of us who are directionally challenged a GPS is a gift from God. How can I calculate the number of gallons of gasoline I have wasted because I have turned the wrong way? If I listen to the nice feminine voice that tells me which way to turn, I usually get where I am going without error. Note I did say “usually.” Sometimes she has to tell me to “Make a U-turn as soon as possible.”
Never would I have conceived of finding my way to an appointment because of a deep space object. When I say “deep space” I really mean deep. As all of us who have lived since Copernicus and Galileo know, our sun is not going around us. We are rotating on an axis while orbiting our sun. Our sun is in motion swirling around the center of our galaxy and our galaxy is moving somewhere. We don’t know where. All of that motion would make a GPS impossible to be accurate if it did not have an anchor point as a base for its mathematical calculations. Therefore, scientists anchor our GPS to a quasar that is a billion light years away. It is so far away it relatively does not move. It is a fixed point. Thus our GPS can tell us where we are and where to go. A billion light years is very “deep” space.
We live in a post modern world that tries to tell us the only meaning we can have in life is what we invent for ourselves. There is no anchor. Thus we are philosophically lost beings. Ah, the joy of being a Christian. We have an anchor who gives us meaning. He tells us who we are. We are His. He tells us where we are going. We are going to be with Him. Jesus is our anchor and He doesn’t even have to be in deep space. He is close by. He is with us; always.
Written by Roger Bothwell on November 4, 2009
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
rogerbothwell.org