An Inkling
To the casual observer of the
sky it looks like everything orbits us.
The sun, moon, planets, and stars rise in the east and set in the west,
with our earth apparently in the middle of things.
Ptolemy (2nd
century, A.D.) was no casual observer.
He noticed that the planets did not move steadily like the stars, sun,
and moon. They got faster and slower,
closer and farther. So he came up with a
theory for the planets’ motions that included little loops, which he called
epicycles. His theory didn’t explain
every quirk of the sky’s motion, but with lots of figuring and a little
fudging, it mostly worked.
Fast forward thirteen
centuries and another careful observer began to cipher. His name was Copernicus, and his
revolutionary proposal was that the sun is central. Once that center was realized, the other
pieces fell into place without the gyrations of epicycles. Voila!
Suddenly the sky was so much simpler and sensible!
To the casual observer it
looks like we are the center of things in life.
By the age of two we casual observers had already determined that all
manner of reality orbits around us.
Along the way we may learn some polite ways to speak of such things, but
we’re not naturally inclined to change our basic view of life: “I am the center.” Of course that theory of life requires lots
of figuring and fudging, along with lots of creative epicycle-like explanations
for life’s quirks. And still it doesn’t
add up.
Life is so much simpler once
we realize that Another is at the center.
If you’ll forgive the well-worn pun:
it is the Son. Once we are given
to understand that He is central, all of life’s orbits and calculations and
motions begin to fall into place – along with a huge sigh of relief that we
don’t have to muster the gravitas to pull everything into orbit around us.
It’s a great way to live, this
Creator’s design for life. May this
spiritual Copernican revolution find full expression in each of us, and wide
realization in all!
Blessings,
Keith
