NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has been constantly watching the sun for over a decade. They produced a time-lapse film (with music) of that entire footage at a speed of one second per day
Fascinating.
And to my understanding, like when you’re sitting in a car that isn’t moving and a train goes by … you begin to feel you are moving. It’s not the sun’s spin you see in the video. It is the Earth’s speedy revolution around the sun.
Watch for a few minutes, think about it a few minutes, and you are almost certain to be awestruck at the realization of where we are.
Because here’s the apparent truth of the matter
We may feel like we’re sitting still and motionless. We think we can stop and quiet ourselves to feel it entirely. But we are actually spinning at a rate of about 1,000 miles per hour at the equator of our planet.
That’s why we have sunrises and sunsets.
We’re not spinning only, though. We are simultaneously revolving around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour.
And the sun? It isn’t motionless either.
The sun and the galaxy we belong to are moving at 448,000 miles per hour. That means no matter how well-practiced the most accomplished human is at sitting silent and still, that person — and everyone else on the planet — are circling a nuclear inferno while twirling and hurling through space at mind-blowing speeds towards a God-only-knows what kind of fate.
True story.
So, what can we do about it?
Answer: Absolutely nothing.
No law we can pass, war we can wage, nor promise we can make can do a darned thing about it. Nature will have its way with us sooner or later.
We will age. We will die. The nuclear sun will explode. And not one iota of humankind’s existence will have mattered a tinker’s damn to the vastness of the universe.
That’s why the Gospel is so appealing to many. It explains the craziness happening at every moment on this planet. And it explains the craziness in me.
Both are similar:
The world and everything in it was created by an all-powerful Being who gave us the Earth as a Paradise, a place where we could walk and talk with Him in a beautiful Garden. But a spiritual enemy tricked the mother and father of humankind, and they chose the knowledge of “good and evil.”
They were booted from the Garden.
The woman was told she would have pain in childbirth, that she would need a husband and he would call the shots. The man was cursed with work … work on an Earth that would now jab him with thorns and make it difficult for him to eke out a living for his family.
For this, they gave up the Garden of Delight, where the food was plentiful and free. Where they worked together happily and the ground was blessed.
And so it is with me.
I am steeped in my ancestor’s errors. I chose things that don’t really matter over the things that matter most. I fail to acknowledge the claim my Creator has on my life, choosing rather to pollute the temple He has given me. I break His commandments daily (for Jesus said to become angry is the same as to commit murder and to even look at a woman with lust is to commit adultery).
I am a “sinner.” I miss the mark all the time, because I rarely even recall that there’s a bullseye, the true target. The most important thing in life.
But here is something amazing:
My Creator desires me to come live forever in a place where tears and heartaches will cease. Where there will be no war, no hate, no evil. Where justice will reign, and no citizen will ever be hungry nor sick.
Wisdom calls to me, points on every side to the Way. The sun, moon, and stars should bring me to my knees in awe at the reality of my position in the universe.
Even so, rather than acknowledge His claim to me, I turn on incandescent lights and sleep under a roof to protect me from His glory. I turn instead to my pretend world where “everything is alright” and I am in control of every knob and switch. Where money, not God, is king. And fear reigns as high priest.
Has anyone noticed this?
The earth doesn’t point towards the sun. That’s why we have seasons. It’s a bit difficult to imagine, but Earth constantly points to the north. That’s why we have seasons. When the north pole points to the sun, we experience the summer solstice. When the south pole points towards the sun, it is the winter solstice.
I Googled the question in various forms for an hour or more and couldn’t find a reference.
If you can, please let me know: What DOES demand the earth’s unending attention?
Where does the Earth point? And why would it unceasingly aim at the emptiest part of the known universe?
Certainly, the force that attracts our planet is not Polaris, nor is it any other “north star,” for the particular star we deem with that astronomical title changes over time. The prior north star was Vega. The next in line is Gamma Cephei. The north star isn’t WHERE we are pointing. It is simply most in the way of that pointing.
Earth constantly looks towards something that holds us more captive than any sun could.
The book of Job explains it well in Chapter 37, Verse 22:
God lives in the north. And the planet we are riding on knows and acts on that fact.
Why don’t I?