I have always been fascinated with space. (I know you are thinking of the area between my ears, but I am referring to outer space.) We are told that the heavens reveal the very essence of God, so in that regard it is understandable that I am fascinated by our God's creation.

I was reading recently about a convention in England dealing with the universe. No, it wasn't a Star Trek convention. Actually, 250 eminent scientific minds gathered in London to attend a Royal Society conference on "the detection of extra-terrestrial life."

God created man to hate aloneness. This is why He created woman; it is why He created family and even the church. But a part of that aloneness was created to drive the creature back to the Creator. When man looks at the sky, he feels a sense of aloneness. That is a God-directed and God-created feeling to force man to come looking for Him. God is a God of relationships. Just look at the Trinity and their very special relationship with each other.

As I continued reading the article, I was amazed to see its conclusion. After the normal evolutionary promise that man's origin will be figured out over the next twenty years or so, the article ends with this: "Even those who believe complex life is widespread aren't especially optimistic about current searches getting positive results . . . . There may be advanced life of a kind we can't conceive, a kind that doesn't reveal itself by electromagnetic radiation — a kind that isn't communicating at all."

Come to think of it, the article does contain a shred of truth at the end. There is advanced life that we truly can't conceive of, but He is communicating and has been communicating for generations through His Word. He is not some distant and purposely evasive God. Rather, His very nature is to reveal Himself to us, first in the person of His Son and secondly in all that He created (John 1:1, 14).

God created man to be lonely to force him into relationships that mirror the Trinity. Because man rejects submission to the God of the Bible, he will spend untold billions of dollars and tremendous human energy to find out if he is all alone in the universe. Could the "chance" of evolution on Earth happen somewhere else? If not, life is a very lonely exercise in futility, misery, and death. But if we are not alone and the God that who made us uses many means to draw us to Himself, then we can have joy no matter the difficulty. We can have peace, no matter the obstacle. We can be confident that to be absent from the body is to be home with the Lord. Think of it: an eternity with “advanced life that we truly can't conceive of" but Who loves us so infinitely that He was willing to die for us in our rebellion. We can say with Paul, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift."

Michael D. Sproul, D.Min.
Senior Pastor