Our Purpose in the Vastness of God

Consciously or unconsciously people struggle with their purpose in life. Though few may admit it, all people, unless they are consumed in narcissism, know deep down that they are less than they could be. As the scripture states, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23 NKJV).

God in the beginning made man in His image. We have the stamp of God on our lives. We have a purpose from God that originated before time began. That may be a far reach for some, but the scripture bears it out.

Ephesians 1:4-5; 11 NKJV
(4) just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
(5) having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
(11) In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,

Sometimes we get lost in our little world. It doesn’t take too much for us to get overwhelmed in our small patch of grass. For us to overcome instead of being overcome it is necessary to look beyond who we are and what we are to see the purpose of God in our lives.

God is so big, and we are so small, yet His purpose is why we were born and remain alive to this day. His purpose is our “why” we are here.

A German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche said this, “He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How.” Paraphrased a little more understandable for our ears, it could be said, “He who knows his purpose can persevere through almost any difficulty.”

If we know our bigger purpose in God, then life’s difficulties are bearable and our life has a greater meaning than our carnal lives on this earth.

Can we zoom out for a moment and catch a God perspective? Bear with me as I give you a few facts. “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork (Ps. 19:1 NKJV).

We are in a universe created by God. I am a creationist meaning I believe God created all things and He created it with a purpose.
We are in a universe created by God. We are situated on a planet called earth that is approximately 25,000 miles in circumference at the equator. It is approximately 8,000 miles in diameter.

We are in a solar system of 8 planets including the earth, the sun, and the moon. Our solar system is about 12 trillion miles in diameter—that’s 12 with 12 zeros or about 2 light years.

When we get beyond our solar system the units of measure change to light years. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. A light year is the distance it would take a beam of light to travel in one year (almost 6 trillion miles). At that speed a beam of light could go around the earth 7 ½ times in one second. I have literally traveled to the other side of our planet (12,000 miles) and it took me 50 hours of travel. This blows my mind!

Our solar system is in the Milky Way Galaxy that is about 100,000 light years in diameter (about 600,000 trillion miles) with an estimated 100 billion stars.

Many have used the comparison of our solar system as if it were the size of a quarter, the Milky Way would be like covering North America (geographically from Central America to Canada) in quarters.

In the observable universe, there are estimated to be anywhere from 200 billion-2 trillion galaxies. The diameter of the observable universe is estimated to be 93 billion light years. You know there is something beyond the observable universe, but the light will never reach our telescopes.

And just think most of us live our lives on a day-to-day basis in the space of about 200 square miles, from our home to work, to church, and to Walmart. Some days I never get off my homestead—those are good days.

This juxtaposition of our local turf and the expanse of God’s universe reveals how little our existence is compared to the greatness of God. Yet with the realization of our smallness, it is important to understand we have a purpose in us from God.

God in His greatness sent His eternal Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem fallen man from his sin and eternal death sentence. The beloved scripture of John 3:16 (NKJV) says it all, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Yours on the Journey,

Harry L. Whitt