POSSIBLY IRRITATING ESSAY: Colliding Galaxies and the Love of God

“But in all these things (tribulation, persecution, distress, famine, nakedness, the sword and death) we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loves us. I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, not height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God – WHICH IS IN JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.” Romans 8: 36-39

I like the way I learned Luther’s Small Catechism. He penned a statement and then asked, “What does this mean?” This is what I’m all about: finding the intersection of science fiction, faith in Christ and writing then figuring out what these Bible verses means for us. I’m not going to poke all of the phrases. I’ll start with:

“nor things to come”

What does this mean: Jesus knows all about this future that we live in, and He knew it in Paul’s time. He knew that the Roman Empire would evolve into the Roman Catholic Church. He knew about Adolph Hitler and He knew about Nelson Mandela. He knew about Christiaan Barnard and Jack Kevorkian. He also knows HOWEVER far in the future Humanity will go – and I believe that He knows all possible futures. It’s how I get around predestination: God knows the infinite futures but we still have the freedom to choose OUR way into the future. He also knows that nothing we have can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

“nor height”

What does this mean: He knows that if we go to the Moon, Mars, Jupiter or the far side of Andromeda – no matter how high off Earth we go – we will NOT be separated from the love of Christ. Earth will always be our home. It may be reduced to the Cemetery World of Clifford D. Simak’s novel, but it will always be where Humanity was born/created/evolved/evolved-created/created-evolved.

“nor depth”

What does this mean: Christ is with us whether we are diving beneath the sea; diving into the atmosphere of River; diving into the plasma atmosphere of the Sun; diving into the core of the Milky Way or the primordial soup before the Big Bang. BTW, our Human, wimpy, sex-based love will not be anywhere except inside our houses, our office buildings, our space stations, our domed colonies, our habitats, our starships or our singularitized selves. His Just and Sacrificial love is here and will be anywhere and everywhere we go.

No matter where we are or when we are – the year 8,000,000,000 AD; orbiting “far Arcturus” or diving into the crashing cores of colliding galaxies, we will not be able to escape the love of God in Christ Jesus.

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