Worth The 13.8 Billion Year Wait

Worth the wait

Out in the Twittersphere, the user Atheist Forum, normally known for tweeting irritating and simplistic memes, seems to have had an epiphany. To wit, this tweet:

CHRISTIANITY: Belief that one God created a universe 13.79 billion yrs old, 93 billion light yrs in diameter (1 light yr = approx. 6 trillion miles), consisting of over 200 billion galaxies, each containing ave. of 200 billion stars, only to have a personal relationship with you.

— Atheist Forum (@ForumAtheist) February 8, 2020

And yes there's a few issues here. I actually believe God created this particular universe (there could be others, after all) 13.8 billion years ago, rather than creating it that old. The number of galaxies is subject to confirmation - but could get up to 200 billion or even way beyond that as we discover more. And yes, there's a lot of stars per galaxy, in the same way that there's a lot of ruins in Mesopotamia. It is true, as Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers' Guide noted, that you may think it's a long way to the chemists, but that's peanuts compared to space.

And I don't think God created this amazing place "only" to have a personal relationship with me. That would be a bit presumptuous. I think God revelled in the joy of creation long before I got here. The way the rules of everything came into existence in (or even before, if such a concept means anything) the big bang. The Word laid out the R-squared law, the nature of time. Stars coalesced, flamed, then screamed into space, creating the heavy elements from which we are made. The Spirit hovered over the void while the Word danced on the edges of the event horizons of black holes.

And we don't know yet whether there are creatures, whether  little furry creatures from Alpha Centauri or great space-going life-forms, basking in the rays of suns and metabolizing over millennia the dust of the universe. If there are, do they think they too are made in God's image? And if so what do they think that image means? It might help us to understand too.

So I believe God rejoiced in all that God had made, long before we first fell out of a tree and stood upright. But when we did - God had been waiting all along. I was in God's mind when God first said let there be light, and you were, and even Atheist Forum was. And then, just 2000 years before I got here, God got here again first. Because it's all very well creating such a brilliant, beautiful, cruel, doomed and loved universe - but God wanted to experience it properly, from the inside, as well. And to do that, God had to be one of God's creatures too.

So yes, the idea that God created a universe so as to have a relationship with me - it's a lovely idea, and it's true, and it's wonderful. And do you know what's even better? It wasn't just for me. It was for you too. And it's been worth the 13.8 billion year wait.

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