HEAVENLY BODIES

Who among the gods is like You, O LORD? Who is like You-
majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?
Exodus 15:11

Professor Seismo sank deep into his favorite rocking chair. He was bathed in the soft, flickering, amber glow of the nearby flames. Three grandchildren, Rick-nine, Joshua-six, and Kelsey-three, sat attentively at his feet with their eyes fixed on the white-haired gentleman above them. As he spun a tale of adventure by the warmth of the fireplace, little did he know that their youthful queries would be such a challenge to him!

Professor Seismo:"Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, but Venus, the next closer, is much warmer. In fact, Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system!"
Rick: "How hot does it get, Grandpa?"
Professor Seismo: "860° F (460° C.)!"
Rick: "Wow! But, why is Venus hotter than Mercury, Grandpa?"
Professor Seismo: "Jesus put a heavy blanket of air around Venus. Mercury has no air."
Josh: "So the blanket keeps Venus nice and toasty?"
Professor Seismo: "Yes, very toasty! I didn't visit Venus or Mercury very long because they're so hot, but I did stay long enough to learn a few things."
Rick: "Like what, Grandpa Seismo?"
Professor Seismo: "Venus is about the same size as earth, but Mercury is much smaller. Venus is dotted with active volcanoes and much of its surface is covered with dried lava. On Venus, the sun rises in the west, not in the east, and its sky is choked with clouds made of sulfuric acid. The weight of its atmosphere is so great that the pressure at the surface is the same as that found one kilometer under the ocean, here on earth. It would not be easy living there!"

Josh: "How'd ya git to Mercury and Venus, Grandpa?"
Professor Seismo: "I built a spaceship and Grandma helped me design a special spacesuit so I could go exploring."
Josh: "Did ya go anywhere else?"
Professor Seismo: "Oh, yes! Jesus made nine planets and I visited all but one. My next stop was Mars."
Rick: "Did you meet any Martians?"
Professor Seismo: "No, kiddo, there's no such thing as Martians. In fact, Jesus didn't put any people or animals or plants on Mars. Mars is a beautiful place, but barren as a desert. Like Mercury and Venus, it has mountains and valleys, volcanoes and craters, though. It's about one half the size of earth, and its year is twice as long as ours."
Rick: "Why is Mars orange?"
Professor Seismo: "Because it's rusting."
(Giggles can be heard coming from the grandchildren.)
Professor Seismo: "No, really! About one-fourth of the planet is made of iron, and it's all rusty. Red dust gets blown around in the air making the sky of Mars a bright pink."
Kelsey: "Oooo, I wanna go there!"

Professor Seismo: "At one time, Mars must have had water, because its surface is scarred by river beds."
Josh: "Did ya go swimming?"
Professor Seismo: "Well, no, Josh. Mars doesn't have any lakes now. And I didn't dare take off my spacesuit."
Rick: "Why not?"
Professor Seismo: "The air on Mars is poisonous, like the air on Venus. Without special clothes and a protective helmet, I would have died."
Josh: "Ohhh!"
Professor Seismo: "But I enjoyed seeing Mars. Did you know that Mars has the largest volcano in the solar system? It's three times taller than Mount Everest!"
Rick: "Is it hot like Mercury and Venus?"
Professor Seismo: "In the middle of summer, Mars can reach 80° F., but most of the time it's very, very cold."
Josh: "Where'd ya go next, Grandpa?"
Professor Seismo: "Jupiter, the biggest planet of them all!"
Josh: "JOO - PIT - RRR? That's a funny name!"
Professor Seismo: "Yes, it is! A long time ago people gave the planets the names of the 'gods' they worshiped. It makes me sad!"
Rick: "Why, Grandpa Seismo?"
Professor Seismo: "Because God made the planets, and yet some people aren't giving Him any credit."
Rick: "Jupiter is pretty far away, isn't it Grandpa?"

Professor Seismo: "Oh, yes, millions of miles from here!"
Josh: "Grandpa Seismo, what's a 'million?'"
(Professor Seismo was a bit stumped. How could he easily explain what a million was?)
Professor Seismo: "A million seconds equals eleven and one-half days!"
Children: "Whoa!"
(At this point, he could have said that outer space was made of chocolate syrup and they would have believed him. He still had their attention!)
Professor Seismo: "Like I said, Jupiter is the largest planet. It's so big that if Jesus had made it hollow, He could have fit a thousand earths inside."
Josh: "Where'd Jesus git so many earths?"
Professor Seismo: "Oh, Jesus didn't really put a thousand earths inside Jupiter, but He could have if He had wanted to ! Do you know where I went after I left Jupiter?"
Kelsey: "Did ya go potty?"
(Professor Seismo smiled.)
Professor Seismo: "No, Kelsey, I went to the planet Saturn. Do you know what the planet Saturn looks like?"
Josh: "It's the one with a race track around its belly!"
Professor Seismo: "That's right-they call the race track 'rings.' Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune also have rings, but they are very faint and hard to see. Saturn's rings are thousands of miles wide, but less than a mile thick-so from a distance they look extremely thin. It's strange, but they're made from chunks of ice; think of the rings as millions of ice cubes orbiting Saturn."

Josh: "Did God make them in His refrigerator?"
(Professor Seismo did not know what to say.)
Rick: "Why did Jesus make the rings, Grandpa?"
Professor Seismo: "I suppose to show off His beauty! If you look carefully at Saturn and Jupiter you can also see a lot of bands, which are called belts and zones. The bands of Jupiter and Saturn help us identify them, just like the stripes on a zebra help us to identify it.
I went to Uranus next. Did you know that God made Uranus to act like a top lying on its side?"
Rick: "What do you mean, Grandpa?
Professor Seismo: "All planets in the solar system spin like tops-some faster, some slower. Earth spins all the way around once every 24 hours. Thus, an earth day is 24 hours long. Jupiter and Saturn spin very fast for their size-their days are only 10 hours long. A day on Venus, however, lasts eight months!"
Josh: "Ya'd have plenty of time to wake up in the morning then, huh, Grandpa?"
(Giggles come from the grandchildren again, as a big grin spreads across Professor Seismo's blushed face.)

Professor Seismo: "Just enough, I suppose. Uranus spins like all the other planets, except it's lying on its side."
Kelsey: "Must be tired, Gampa!"
Professor Seismo: "Maybe so. After Uranus, I went on to Neptune. Now, Neptune is three billion miles from here! It took four hours for my radio message to reach Grandma on earth."
Josh: "What did ya see when ya landed on Neptune?"
Professor Seismo: "Well, I didn't land on Neptune, or Uranus, or Saturn, or Jupiter."
(The kids seemed really disappointed.)
Children: "Why not?"
Professor Seismo: "These four planets are very special-God made them from gas."
Josh: "Like from a gas station?"
Professor Seismo: "No, like the gas in a tire, or the gas you breathe. Only, the gas on these planets is mostly hydrogen and helium."

Rick: "I know what helium is-it's the stuff they put in balloons!"
Professor Seismo: "That's right! And did you know that Saturn is made from so much gas that it would float if Jesus placed it into a gigantic bathtub?!"
Rick: "Really?!"
Professor Seismo: "What's more, the atmosphere of Neptune is so turbulent that I recorded wind speeds of 1,200 miles per hour (1,930 kilometers per hour)!"
Kelsey: "Did ya fly a kite?"
Professor Seismo: "No, Kelsey, I didn't get a chance to, but I did explore a couple of moons while I was out in space."
Josh: "Which ones?"
Professor Seismo: "At Jupiter, I briefly set foot on one of its bigger moons, called Io (EYE-oh). It was a strange but wonderful place! Io had many volcanoes, and Jesus painted the whole surface of the moon with bright orange and black lava, giving it an eerie orange-red appearance. I took a sample of the air while I was there and it smelled like rotten eggs. WHEW!!"

Kelsey: "Gampa, you're silly!"
Professor Seismo: "I've been told that."
Josh: "Did it smell bad cuz Jesus' refrigerator stopped working?"
Professor Seismo: "No, sweetie, it's because there's sulfur everywhere! It comes from the many volcanoes. It's the sulfur that smells bad."
Rick: "How many moons does Jupiter have?"
Professor Seismo: "Sixteen! And Saturn, 18; Uranus, 15; and Neptune, eight."
Children: "Whoa!"
Professor Seismo: "At Saturn, I flew by its biggest moon, Titan. The air surrounding it is colored orange. Reminded me of a humongous tangerine!

While at Neptune I briefly visited Triton."
Josh: "I thought ya said that Trident was Saturn's moon?"
Professor Seismo: "Oh, these names are confusing! Saturn has a moon called TIE - TAN, and Neptune has one named TRY - TON."
(Professor Seismo noted that the kids looked somewhat confused and they were getting restless.)
Professor Seismo: "Try to remember it this way-every once in a while Jesus needs to 'Titan' the rings of Saturn."
(They still looked confused!)
Josh: "Did you like Trident?"
Professor Seismo: "Neptune's moon? Triton was fascinating, but SO COLD--coldest place in the solar system, as far as we know (-391° F./-235°C.)!"
Josh: "Did ya gitta chance ta make a snowman?"
Professor Seismo: "Well, no. There wasn't any snow-not like the snow here on earth, at least." (They looked confused again. They were getting tired and he had to think fast!)
Professor Seismo: "I mean, there's snow, but it's not made from water, it's made from a gas called nitrogen and a gas called methane."
(There was silence and blank stares. Professor Seismo nervously cleared his throat. He was losing his audience!)
Professor Seismo: "It...it really was a fascinating place. From space, it appeared pink!"
Kelsey: "Oooo, I wanna go there!"
Professor Seismo: "And it had geysers."
Josh: "I saw them at Yellow-phone Park!"
Professor Seismo: "Yes, Yellowstone National Park has geysers of hot water, but Triton has geysers of liquid nitrogen-brrr, very cold!"
Josh: "Did ya go to Pluto?"

Professor Seismo: "No, it was too hard to get there. Normally, Pluto is the furthest planet from the sun. It's so far away that if we stood on its surface hoping to see a pretty sunrise, we would see, instead, the sun peeking above the horizon as a bright star! It takes 250 years for Pluto to make a trip around the sun, which means that on Pluto a year is 250 earth years long. If you lived on Pluto, you would never celebrate your birthday!"
Kelsey: "I don't wanna go there!"
Professor Seismo: "All the planets, except Mercury and Venus, have at least one moon and Pluto is no exception. Pluto's moon is called Charon."
Rick: "It must be really cold on Pluto and Charon, Grandpa Seismo!"
Professor Seismo: "Rick, you're probably right. I would assume they're as cold as Triton."
Josh: "Are ya glad to be home, Grandpa?"
Professor Seismo: "Oh, yes, Josh, I am! This trip really showed me how nice a place Earth is to live-with all the water and blue sky, green grass and animals."

Rick: "Could people live on other planets?"
Professor Seismo: "Without spacesuits, only a few seconds. Remember, Mercury and Venus are really hot; we would burn up there. Mars and Venus have poisonous air. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are so far from the sun that they are very, very cold, and there's no land to walk on. Even if there was a place on which to stand, we'd all be smashed under the tremendous weight of their atmospheres."
Rick: "How come Jesus made planets we can't live on?"
Professor Seismo: "I suppose so that we would stay here on Earth and learn to love one another. Besides, I think He had fun making these beautiful worlds. Most of all, however, I think they reflect how holy He is!"
Josh: "What does 'holy' mean, Grandpa Seismo?"
Rick: "OH...OH, I KNOW! It's like when mom says I'm bein' a good boy!"
Professor Seismo: "Very close, Rick! Holy is a word that describes who God is. It is similar to your dad or mom calling you 'good,' which is the opposite of 'bad.'"
Rick: "What's the opposite of holy?"
Professor Seismo: "We're the opposite of holy, because we frequently disobey God and sin! Have you ever done something your mom or dad told you not to do?"
(All the children nod sheepishly.)
Professor Seismo: "That's the opposite of being holy. God is holy because He is God and He is perfect. His angels are holy because they obey Him-they magnify His character. God is different from us, very different. Think how different the planets Venus or Neptune are from Earth. Well, God is even more different compared to us! But God wants us to be like Him, and that's why Jesus died on the cross. Without Christ, we can't be friends with God. If we tried to talk face to face with Him on our own, we'd burn up in His holiness. We'd probably have a better chance surviving on Mercury without a spacesuit! On our own, we can never be friends with God."
Josh: "That makes me sad!"
Professor Seismo: "Don't be sad! If you trust in Jesus, He will be your 'spacesuit,' so that you can see His awesome Father."
Rick: "Spacesuit, Grandpa? How can Jesus be our spacesuit?"
(Professor Seismo picks up the Bible at the side of his chair and turns to the middle.)
Professor Seismo: "Listen to what the prophet Isaiah said:

I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness...*

Does anyone know what garments are?"
Rick: "Clothes?"
Professor Seismo: "That's right! So who is the garment of salvation?"
Rick: "Jesus?"
Professor Seismo: "Yes, very good! Just as an astronaut puts on layers of clothing to protect him from the harshness of space, we need protection to stand before the holy God of the universe. None of us is good enough to live with God in eternity. Like going to Mercury or Venus without a spacesuit, we can't survive God's burning purity on our own! You see, Jesus covers over our sins, so we can be holy like His Father."
Josh: "Kinda like changin' my pants when they git dirty, huh, Grandpa?"
Professor Seismo: "Kind of, except when you're in heaven and Jesus has His arms wrapped around you, you'll never get 'dirty' again! Say, I just saw Grandma with milk and cookies! Does anyone want some?"

Jesus can give you something far better than milk and cookies. Like Professor Seismo said, Christ died on a cross that your sins might be forgiven. He can allow you to experience the brilliant holiness of His Father in eternity if you will commit your life to Him. Please don't put it off-now is the best time! Take a moment to pray the following prayer:

Dear God, I recognize that I have lived my life independently of you and you consider this sin. Please forgive me through your Son, Jesus Christ--through His death on the cross. Jesus, please come into my heart right now and become my King and my God. I accept your gift of eternal life. Show me how to live the way you want me to live. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I pray, Amen.

Contact us at HIS CREATION if you made this commitment. We want to help!

For this is what the high and lofty One says-He Who lives forever,
Whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also
with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit
of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite."
Isaiah 57:15

 

*Isaiah 61:10