Purpose

I am a science nerd. I am fascinated by numbers and science in the world around me. Make that worlds.

I like to look at the night sky. Did you know scientists estimate that there are 100 thousand million stars in just our galaxy? And that there are probably millions and millions of galaxies? It is, of course, impossible to measure the number of stars so far away, but scientists estimate that there are 10-with-23-zeros stars in our universe. And that’s not even mentioning the planets orbiting those stars.

I don’t know about you, but I really can’t even think about numbers that high.

So let’s get a little smaller, shall we? In each of our cells, we find DNA. It is a blueprint that tells cells to behave in certain ways, and makes each of us unique. In fact, the chance that we would have the same DNA as someone else is 5000 billion to 1. See? A much smaller number. But still something I can’t really wrap my mind around.

Whether you look at the big picture or the small picture, there is incredible beauty and complexity. And in my eyes, purpose. We did not appear by accident. My mind cannot accept a great cosmic accident in the face of those large incomprehensible numbers. In the great history of the entire universe, you and I have appeared in this place and at this time.

“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee” (Jeremiah 1:5).

We were made on purpose, and for a purpose.

We will each need to figure out just what that purpose is, but there is no one on this earth, or even in this universe, who can do what we can do. God loves us and will help us figure out what that is.

So do you now feel really, really big or really, really small? Or somehow both at the same time?