Why the Universe Exists

Another Way for week of August 3, 2018

Why the Universe Exists

I’m not the kind of deep thinker that would ever think of taking on the great mind of astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. He passed away of course this past March, after a full lifetime of dealing with the crippling effects of ALS, also known as “Lou Gehrig Disease.” I admired him for his courageous struggle and his great mind, wit and writing.

One of his well-known quotes is “My goal is simple. It is complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.”

Those of us who are Christian tend to believe that we have been given a rather complete description of why the universe exists in the stories of the Bible. We accept—and know in our innermost being—that there is more to life than the physical dimension. We believe that there is a spiritual dimension to us as humans and the universe.

I’ve only read a brief summary of the chapters in Hawking’s landmark bestselling book A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes published in 1988. That was long after my own years in college had passed, so I can’t and won’t begin to dive into that. But I do want to explore the spiritual dimension in relation to the universe.

Everyone who feels love towards another human or even for animals and nature has felt the spiritual dimension to life. We can’t touch love and we can’t see it. But yet we believe it exists and it shapes us, for good and for bad or sad.

The Bible tells us God is love, in 1 John 4: 7-8. Verse 16 of that same chapter expresses it this way: “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”

But let’s go back to the Stephen Hawking sentence—why the universe exists. The truth that I know and feel and experience every day is that the universe exists because God is love and created humans to return love to our Creator. As the Bible itself James Weldon Johnson wrote in his poem “The Creation”, perhaps the universe exists because God was lonely. It does say God noticed (Gen. 2:18) that it was not good for the man he created to be alone.  Ultimately God brought humans into being and created us to love and be in spiritual companionship with the Almighty.

I feel and know God when:

• I feel awe with morning sun peeping over the eastern hills near our house
• I feel the warm and loving human touch of my husband before I arise to start my day
• I sink my teeth into a wholesome banana, savoring the goodness—the first fruit most of our babies taste and toddlers love
• I reflect on my beloved children, grandchildren, and sons-in-law and the love they’ve added to our circle; we can’t describe or delineate how that love was born—especially between parent and child and grandchild, but knowing it is there helps me feel God’s love
• As I stretch out for some morning exercise I admire how well God made our bodies and brains and muscles to move and work together
• As I’m struggling with a piece of writing and a new idea pops into my head—is that God? Maybe sometimes, maybe not I won’t blame God for my ideas that are losers but certainly creativity is a spirit and gift that comes from the hand of our creator God.
• I take a walk and enjoy the singing birds, the wild flowers, the squirrels and rabbits. As Jesus put it—if God so loves the birds and flowers of the field, how much more does God care about you and me?
• I sit down to a meal of delicious sweet corn, garden ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, and green peppers—with some meat from God’s animal kingdom. We pause to thank the Creator.
• I am stirred by billions of stars in the universe—the universe which Hawkings and other brilliant minds (which God created) have attempted to describe, and I know that I am seeing just a small part of the unfathomable universe. I’m glad for those who fathom how and why, and know that love and God are part of it.

Thanks be to God!

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What are your thoughts?

What do you most wonder about the universe?

If you believe in God, why? What makes you know God exists? 

Comment here or send thoughts to me at anotherwaymedia@yahoo.com or Another Way Media, P.O. Box 363, Singers Glen, VA 22834.

Another Way is a column by Melodie Davis, in syndication since 1987. She is the author of nine books. Another Way columns are posted at FindingHarmonyBlog.com a week after newspaper publication.