How Big is Heaven?

Eleven billion “Earths”?  The scientists who spend their work weeks looking for life-sustaining planets are telling the rest of us that there could be 11 billion planets in the Milky Way which have the right elements to sustain life. Water is necessary for life to exist. Now, the author of Genesis did not have an Ivy League education, but when that author wrote that in the beginning the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters it seems you could believe it was (a) a lucky guess; or (b) the first recorded insight into what the really brainy guys and gals have now confirmed: life on a planet needs water.  But, the Bible isn’t a science handbook, and that isn’t the point of Genesis 1. Still, isn’t it is fascinating how science just keeps drawing closer to finding God? But, this isn’t my point for today.

My point for today is that for water to exist on a planet it needs to be made of the right material (rock; iron) and it needs to be in a habitable zone. That is, it must not be too far from nor too close to a sun. If it is in the “just right” zone, then water can puddle up. Now, the scientists have made an educated guess that they are 11 billion “suns” which have a related planet just like our Sun and Earth.  You can see these with your naked eye on a clear night. Just think, when you see that star twinkling in the sky at night, that could be your future home!

When I don’t have enough other things to think about I wonder about this: with all the people that have lived in time, when Jesus Christ returns and makes the Earth new where will all of the people live? So I think about  the size of the oceans and deserts which could be made habitable.  But wouldn’t we all have to live in big skyscrapers?  So news of this discovery of a potential 11 billion Earths became a “light bulb” moment for me.  Who says that God needs to limit the new Earth to one habitable planet. Why couldn’t the new “Earth” be plural? And since we are dealing with eternity, the fact that my kids live on a planet 12 light years away won’t bother me because I have all the time in the world (literally) to get there.  Which all goes to say, don’t worry about it, right? God will make a way.  This is not the only life we will know. That is the point.

How big is heaven? Big enough. For you.