A devotion by Steve Long
How would you like to travel through space to live on another planet somewhere? We are told that Earth is “overpopulated and fragile,” and that human population should not remain confined to one single planet.
A planet was discovered several years ago in the constellation Libra called Gliese 581 C. It is considered by scientists to be “habitable”.
They say the earth is about 8,000 miles in diameter pole to pole. This planet is about 12,000 miles across.
Our Sun is calculated to be approximately 93 million miles away. Gliese 581 C, they say, is only six million miles from the star it orbits. However that star is a “red dwarf,” which is much smaller and colder than the sun. Therefore we are told the temperatures there probably range from 32 to 104 degrees F. That sounds a lot like Texas to me!
It is thought this “super earth” is perhaps made mostly of rock, but may even be covered in water. Scientists say this would allow a climate where water would not be so cold that it freezes or so hot that it boils. Water there would be liquid, which is a necessity for life as we know it. Right now though, we don’t even know whether there is one drop of water there.
This is certainly the kind of stuff to all a scientific mind go wild with imagination!
A radio beam was aimed at this planet in 2008 to send 501 text messages that were thought important to any being out there which might be able to receive the signal. That signal should arrive there in the year 2029.
But before you get ready to take the next flight to Gliese 581 C, consider some realities first.
Astrobiologists have calculated that the planet has about double Earth’s gravity. Any creatures living on this Utopia would therefore be twice as heavy as they would be on Earth. So much for that Weight Watcher’s plan you’ve been thinking about!
It has been said that the planet we are considering completes a full orbit in 13 days. The upside is that you will be receiving a birthday card from Grandma about every two weeks. The downer is that some of you reading this would already be over 1,000 years old!
We are told that “super-earth” is located only 20.5 light-years away. It sounds like a trip to the mall, but since light travels at 186,000 miles per second, that means the newly found planet is in fact 120,000,000,000 (120 trillion) miles from where you live. I bet you don’t even have that many miles on your old Chevrolet!
The fastest that man has ever travelled in space, I think, is 25,000 MPH. at that rate it would take about 547,945 years to reach our destination. That’s about 10 times the history of the human race. Keep in mind that this is one of the “closer” heavenly bodies outside our solar system. Let’s say a society wanted to try to reproduce itself on the way to this planet. It would take 14,000 generations to reach their new home. What if you arrived and found the place uninhabitable? What if you returned to earth and it was gone? What if you got back and someone by then had learned to travel at the speed of light?
But wait? There is a better plan! Jesus said,
"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know."
Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?"
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.[i]
Wow! Talk about space travel! We are told in the bible that believers in Jesus Christ will be “caught up, to meet the Lord in the air.”[ii] It also says it will happen “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.”[iii]
How about this scripture?
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."
And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.
I’m planning on travelling through space to a habitable place, to be suddenly in the presence of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ to dwell in a place he has prepared for me. How about you?
[i] John 14.1-6
[ii] 1 Thessalonians 4.17
[iii] 1 Corinthians 15.52
A planet was discovered several years ago in the constellation Libra called Gliese 581 C. It is considered by scientists to be “habitable”.
They say the earth is about 8,000 miles in diameter pole to pole. This planet is about 12,000 miles across.
Our Sun is calculated to be approximately 93 million miles away. Gliese 581 C, they say, is only six million miles from the star it orbits. However that star is a “red dwarf,” which is much smaller and colder than the sun. Therefore we are told the temperatures there probably range from 32 to 104 degrees F. That sounds a lot like Texas to me!
It is thought this “super earth” is perhaps made mostly of rock, but may even be covered in water. Scientists say this would allow a climate where water would not be so cold that it freezes or so hot that it boils. Water there would be liquid, which is a necessity for life as we know it. Right now though, we don’t even know whether there is one drop of water there.
This is certainly the kind of stuff to all a scientific mind go wild with imagination!
A radio beam was aimed at this planet in 2008 to send 501 text messages that were thought important to any being out there which might be able to receive the signal. That signal should arrive there in the year 2029.
But before you get ready to take the next flight to Gliese 581 C, consider some realities first.
Astrobiologists have calculated that the planet has about double Earth’s gravity. Any creatures living on this Utopia would therefore be twice as heavy as they would be on Earth. So much for that Weight Watcher’s plan you’ve been thinking about!
It has been said that the planet we are considering completes a full orbit in 13 days. The upside is that you will be receiving a birthday card from Grandma about every two weeks. The downer is that some of you reading this would already be over 1,000 years old!
We are told that “super-earth” is located only 20.5 light-years away. It sounds like a trip to the mall, but since light travels at 186,000 miles per second, that means the newly found planet is in fact 120,000,000,000 (120 trillion) miles from where you live. I bet you don’t even have that many miles on your old Chevrolet!
The fastest that man has ever travelled in space, I think, is 25,000 MPH. at that rate it would take about 547,945 years to reach our destination. That’s about 10 times the history of the human race. Keep in mind that this is one of the “closer” heavenly bodies outside our solar system. Let’s say a society wanted to try to reproduce itself on the way to this planet. It would take 14,000 generations to reach their new home. What if you arrived and found the place uninhabitable? What if you returned to earth and it was gone? What if you got back and someone by then had learned to travel at the speed of light?
But wait? There is a better plan! Jesus said,
"Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know."
Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?"
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.[i]
Wow! Talk about space travel! We are told in the bible that believers in Jesus Christ will be “caught up, to meet the Lord in the air.”[ii] It also says it will happen “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.”[iii]
How about this scripture?
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."
Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said to me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful."
And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.
I’m planning on travelling through space to a habitable place, to be suddenly in the presence of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ to dwell in a place he has prepared for me. How about you?
[i] John 14.1-6
[ii] 1 Thessalonians 4.17
[iii] 1 Corinthians 15.52
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