On Our Word – Sunday, March 28, 1982
In this universe of unique things, there is not much that is identical. Every pine tree, person and planet is ultimately unlike every other. But there is one thing that all things in creation share, they are all moving. Nothing in the universe stands still. From the most gigantic galaxy lumbering through space to the tiniest neutrino spinning inside a molecule, nothing is inert. Everything is active.
Certainly, everything that we call alive moves and grows and changes continually. If continual motion is common to all creation, the next question we might ask is, “Where is it all going?” Is this movement strictly happenstance and change? Is it controlled by cold unfeeling laws of physics mechanically going about their business?
From our finite observations, it is impossible to tell because our perspective and our field of view is so narrow and limited, and our time of observation is so short relative to the vast movements we observe.
Jim Bishop wrote, “The future is an opaque mirror. Anyone who tries to look into it sees nothing but the dim outlines of an old and worried face.”1
But we are not left direction less in our quest for the meaning of motion in all creation. Poets, prophets, inspired scientists and others through the ages have felt the whisperings of the spirit and glimpsed a guiding hand behind this constant movement. They have seen direction and destination in its flow.
The destination may go by a number of names. Just in today’s broadcast we get a sampling. Wagner writes of the “Pilgrim’s Chorus” with the strong implication that he means more than just an earthly pilgrimage. Brahms extols the better land we are bound for in his stirring, “How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place.”
Yes, the destination may be described differently, but the feeling is always the same—a brighter hope for a better tomorrow, a glorious destination for all humankind, and for all of God’s creations.
We shall not wander aimlessly in a purposeless universe until light and heat and energy dissipate and all creation dies. Nor shall we go on forever in an eternal circle. Rather we shall progress. We shall go forward, haltingly yes, stumbling at times, but holding fast to the bright hope that eventually through the grace of God and with His guidance we shall arrive at that fair land which every inspired observer has promised and prophesied.
1 John Bishop, New York Journal American, March 14, 1959, Quoted in International Thesaurus of Quotations, Rhoda Thomas Tripp (ed.). Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, 1970, p. 237
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March 28, 1982
Broadcast Number 2,745