This Light-Years Phenomenon

They tell me that a light-year

Is the measurement of the distance

That light travels

In a vacuum in a single year.

This amounts to 5.88 trillion miles

If you favour the imperial measure

Or 9.46 trillion kilometres

If the metric standard is your pleasure.

I find it quite amusing

When we spread these numbers around

And those twelve zeroes in the trillions

Can make one look like a clown.

Consider that this is one light-year

And we’re talking “at the speed of light”,

What if it were several light years?

This would be a little too much to bite.

The nearest star to planet earth

Is about ninety-three million miles away,

This is the sun within our galaxy

That brightens each and every day.

The next star in order of distance

Is approximately 4.3 light-years away

It’s really a dual star system

That comprises a binary pair.

That may not mean much to you

And it certainly does not to me

For when I consider things of this type

My head gets a little dizzy.

When I look into the night sky

Particularly on a bright and starry night

I wonder just like David the psalmist

About each of those twinkling lights.

Small they make look to us

Since they are so far away

But times bigger than our planet earth

Though not one you can see during the day.

  

I wonder which ones are planets

Like the nine in our solar system

And which ones are really stars

Like the sun that each of our days brightens.

There is a lot of argument

Pertaining to the age of planet earth

Which is extended even further

When determining the universe’s birth.

The Bible indicates thousands of years

Men argue it must be billions,

Billions of years for the universe

Considering its trillions of suns.

For when one considers the distance

That some stars are away from us

There is no way the earth could be young,

Now you see why all of the fuss.

How could the light from these stars

Ever have reached planet earth

When we are just thousands of years

And their distance suggests an earlier birth?

It would have taken millions of light years

For their light to reach right down to us

So this particular reasoning

Must give impetus to that thrust.

All this is quite mind-boggling

Even for the scientists

So you could well imagine

How much of it I have missed.

Then of course there are the “gap-theorists”

Who argue that this could very well be

Since no one knows the length of time

Between Genesis 1 verses 2 and 3.

A lot of this is lost on me

And there’s much I don’t understand

But at this point I would endeavour

To point out to you a fact in God’s divine plan.

Just stop for a moment and think!

Where is Jesus at this time?

Have you ever thought of his return?

Has it even crossed your mind?

The Bible says he is in heaven

Perhaps millions of light-years away

But read Matthew chapter 24 verse 27

And take note of what it says.

“For as the lightning comes out of the east

And shines even unto the west

So shall the coming of the Son of man be.”

The Bible is the absolute test.

He who spoke the world into being

Can traverse light years in one second

So while this moment is available to you

Why not come to him as he beckons?

Stewart Russell © August 2017