God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. —Genesis 1:16–18
Many people think the existence of life is just a happy accident. All the right elements came together by chance and—poof!—here we are.
Consider, for instance, how our sun and moon are essential for life on earth. Without the sun, water would remain frozen, and neither plants nor animals could live. And the moon plays a vital role as well. But isn’t our sun an ordinary star, and isn’t our moon just like countless others in the solar system? Are the factors that contribute to life on our planet really so unusual?
As astronomers have discovered, our sun and moon are much more exceptional than once thought. Our sun is far from ordinary; it has exactly the right mass and composition and is the ideal distance from the earth to enable life on our planet.
If it were much smaller, its luminosity wouldn’t allow the high-efficiency photosynthesis necessary in plants; if it were much closer, the water would boil away from the planet’s surface. Similarly, our moon is just far enough away and just the right size to stabilize the earth’s tilt. Without the moon’s stabilizing presence, the earth would experience wild temperature swings, with devastating consequences for life.
The factors that allow for life on our planet are unusually ideal. The sun and moon are only two among innumerable variables that have been aligned perfectly since the beginning of the universe to set the stage for human life.
So, as God admonishes us in Isaiah 40:26, “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.”
The Creator lovingly designed and balanced the starry host to provide everything we need for life. And that was no accident!
Truth for Today
Look up into the sky again—maybe after dark tonight—and remind yourself of who created everything you see. Then praise him for putting everything in place so we could thrive and, ultimately, know and worship him!
Why do we believe what we believe?
Leading apologists Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg present 180 insightful devotions that will give you daily infusions of spiritual truth while deepening your knowledge of the evidence for Christianity in the new devotional, Today’s Moment of Truth.
© 2016 by Lee Strobel. Courtesy of Zondervan Publishers.
