Immanuel

As we began a new season for Pioneer Clubs in September, each age group started in Genesis, with the historical account of God’s creation described in Chapter 1.

The following Wednesday evening, the grade 4-6 Pioneer Boys left planet Earth to discuss the staggering expanse of creation.

We discovered that our sun is 93 million miles from Earth, and a hollow ball the size of the sun would hold about one million planet earths.

Sirius Canis Major, the brightest star in our sky, is twice as big as our sun. Arcturus, the third brightest star in our night sky, is more than twenty-three times larger than our sun.

Betelguese, one of the stars visible in the constellation Orion, is three hundred times larger than our sun.

Job expressed his awe of God: “How should man be just with God?… Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades and the chambers of the south.” Job 9:2, 9 KJV

The fastest known speed is the speed of lightning, travelling at 186,000 miles per second, or 300,000 km per second.

It takes 8 ½ minutes for light from the sun to reach us. If we could travel at this speed, we could be on the moon in 1 ½ seconds, Mars in 4 ½ minutes, Jupiter in 35 minutes, and Pluto in 5 hours and 20 minutes. Arcturus in 37 years and Betelgeuse in 522 years.

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains over one hundred billion stars, and there are billions more galaxies in the universe. Travelling the breadth of our galaxy would take 100,000 years at the speed of light!

The size of the universe is beyond our comprehension, and the baby in Bethlehem made all of it. He created everything.

“He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:2-3, ESV)

The humble birth of Jesus Christ is not about the Saviour’s infancy; it’s about His deity. The miraculous gift of Christmas, Christ, God’s own Son, gave up His wealth and privilege to live as God with us, Immanuel, that He might save His people from our sins so we can be born again in His glory.