I love this picture.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has produced the deepest image of the universe ever taken. Astronomers generated this picture by pointing Hubble at one small patch of the sky for several months and recording every tiny photon of light they could get. It is as if you took an average sized coin and held it up to the night sky. The entire image contains nearly 10,000 galaxies, but here you can see a small sample of what’s out there.
The universe is vast. Huge. Ginormous!
The Bible says, that God has given each of the stars a name,
He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.
(Psalm 147:4-5 ESV)To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power
not one is missing.
(Isaiah 40:25-26 ESV)
Almost all the stars in the universe are collected together into galaxies. They can be small dwarf galaxies, with just 10 million or so stars, or they can be monstrous irregular galaxies with more than 10 trillion stars. Our own Milky Way galaxy contains an estimated 200 billion stars, which is average for a galaxy in the universe.
So how vast is the universe? Know one really knows nor has seen the edge of deep space. Astronomers estimate that there are approximately 100 billion to 1 trillion galaxies in the Universe [about 1024 stars] or between 10 sextillion and 1 septillion stars in the universe, but that may be on the small side of the scale. That’s a large number of stars. And God created each and knows each by name.
spreading the fame 
People wonder how God could create the universe in such a short time. 6 days?? Really? If things traveled at the speed of light, it would be impossible. Articles like this attempt to explain what the Bible has already told us:
The article in a nutshell: Scientists have discovered that something (neutrinos) can travel faster than the speed of light.
God having speed limits?? I think not.
The other amazing part is……look at the smallest particle humans know (quarks, neutrino’s and antimatter, I think), and they are made up of even smaller particles that we haven’t seen yet. He knows all of those parts, too, because He made them.
Now….think about how infinite God is, and yet He cares enough about me, one lowly sinner, to send his Son, to take my place on the cross?
Mindboggling.
Bob,
You bring up some amazing and encouraging truths from Creation. It reminds me of what Paul says to the church in Rome,
“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” (Romans 1:19-23 ESV)
Though God has made Himself clear and His redemptive plan plain through Creation people still ignore it and choose the idols of their philosophies and theories.
Our God has limitless power and authority. What an amazing blessing it is that He shares that power and authority with us in Christ and His Spirit [Matthew 28:19-20]. It is the power of the gospel [Jesus saves those who respond to His grace]. And it is sill changing lives.
Great thoughts, Bob. Thanks for share these mind-boggling truths!