Astronomers discover a planet 35 times larger than Earth

The funerals for those who died at Camp Mystic and other Central Texas flood locations are being held and are breaking the hearts of everyone who attends and many who are praying for those who attend. Not to mention those grieving for more than one hundred flood victims who are still missing at this writing.

Many of us are struggling with the perennial question: Since God created the natural world and can intervene whenever he wishes, why didn’t he prevent this tragedy? However, I’d like to take a moment to look at the natural world from a different perspective, one that I hope can offer hope for our hurting hearts.

100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets

My thoughts are prompted by this headline in today’s news: “Astronomers discover giant alien planet 35 times more massive than Earth hiding in a known star system.”

They named the newly found exoplanet Kepler-139f. Despite its giant size, it had evaded detection until now. One of the co-authors of the study reporting the discovery added, “It is likely that many planetary systems host unseen worlds, especially in their outer regions.”

Scientists now estimate that there are 100 sextillion planets in the universe. To put that number in numeric terms, they believe there are 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets like ours, many of them many times larger than Earth.

But they are only a small part of the galaxies in which they reside. And scientists estimate that there are between six and twenty trillion galaxies in the universe. (Let’s not pass over “trillion”—there are one thousand millions in a billion and one thousand billions in a trillion.)

If all of this “boggles your mind,” so to speak, that’s my intent.

Why the Greeks had so many gods

Like you, I am frustrated and grieved whenever God does not intervene in the natural world to prevent natural disasters and tragedies. But let’s not overlook the fact that he can.

The Judeo-Christian tradition is unique among world religions in its emphasis on a single deity who not only created the universe but also interacts with it today. Most religions known to history are polytheistic, comprised of deities limited to specific realms or locations. The Greeks and Romans had their god of the sea, for example, but he had limited agency in wartime over their god of war.

This is why they had so many gods. When a specific need arose, it was important to identify the particular deity who could help and then find a way to persuade them to act.

Even monotheistic religions such as Islam typically emphasize the sovereignty and distance of God over his personal engagement with humans. And none but Christianity dares to suggest that the God who made the universe then entered it so he could enter our lives today.

But this is just what the New Testament assures us:

• By creating our immeasurably large universe, our God shows that he possesses all the omnipotence we need to meet our needs (cf. Isaiah 40:12).
• By entering our world through the Incarnation, he shows that he can be present at every moment in every place in our world (cf. Matthew 28:20).
• By calming storms, healing the sick, and raising the dead, he shows that he is willing to intervene in nature.
• By virtue of his nature as the Supreme Being, he is unchangeable (Malachi 3:6) and thus can do anything he has ever done.
• By virtue of his character as the God who “is” love (1 John 4:8), he can only want what is best for us.
• By virtue of his Spirit who dwells in every believer now (1 Corinthians 3:16), he can do in and through us all that his omnipotence chooses to do.

All of this encourages us to say with Paul, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).

Three reasons to pray

None of this tells us why our Father does not always intervene in nature as we wish he would. But it does assure us that he can. And it therefore encourages us to continue to pray for such intervention when the need arises.

But you might be asking: If we cannot be sure that God will do what we ask, why ask? Let’s consider three responses.

One: Prayer positions us to receive whatever grace chooses to give. 

Because God honors the free will he gives us, he will enter the door of our lives only when it is opened to him (Revelation 3:20). This is why Scripture says, “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2).

Two: Prayer connects us with God as one of the primary ways his Spirit molds us into the character of Christ (Romans 8:29). 

Right now, you and I are thinking about God. If we were praying, we would be talking to him. Such a connection enables him to shape and sanctify us by the transforming power of his Spirit. Prayer does not change God, but it is a powerful means by which he changes us.

Three: Prayer enables us to respond to crisis as the body of Christ. 

While you and I cannot do miracles, we can be the means by which miracles are done as we pray and then engage in the world (cf. Acts 3). And we can be the hands and feet of Jesus by which he weeps with those who weep and comforts those who mourn. When we pray, his Spirit directs us, empowers us, and works through us for God’s glory and our good.

All of this is possible because our Father is the omnipotent Lord we have been discussing in this article. And all of it is relevant because he loves us as much right now as when he sent his Son to die for us.

All of God there is, is in this moment.

Why is this good news for you today?