 For the first time in our history,
human beings have seen planet earth photographed from outer
space. This has made the world a radically different place. The first tentative steps of humanity into cosmic exploration have been more than a technical
accomplishment. They have occasioned a quantum leap in our collective consciousness. We are beginning to glimpse the true scope of God's universe; and for Christians especially, this should be cause not only for awe and wonder, but also for profound joy and anticipation.
A Planet in Quarantine
To grasp the extent of recent discoveries, we merely need note some facts and figures about the cosmos. For example, astronomers now estimate that in our galaxy alone, there are some 300 billion planets suitable for life. (To get
some idea of these numbers, if we were to count at the rate of one per second, working a 40-hour week and a 50-week year, it would take more than 138 years to count to one billion.) Of these planets, there are probably 100 billion where life has actually evolved, and 600 million planets sufficiently similar to earth for habitation by human beings.
Since the universe is estimated to have 100 billion galaxies, the
question is not whether there might be extraterrestrial life, but the overwhelming improbability that there is not. As to why we have not been visited by alien life forms, there is not only the problem of time and distance, but
the very real issue of whether we are worth visiting. The perceptive
suggestion of C.S. Lewis in his science fiction novels is that we are in cosmic quarantine. Something has gone seriously wrong with the planet called Earth, the most serious being the nasty habits of its occupants. The rest of the universe has accordingly been instructed to give us a wide berth. Nasty habits are notoriously infectious.
However, suggests Lewis, the gossip on the cosmic grapevine says that the Creator has chosen a strange and daring strategy to put things right. God has visited planet earth in person and has intervened directly to effect a cure.
Cosmic Awe and Christian Myopia
 As so often is the case with C.S. Lewis, his fiction illumines the Bible and says far more than the tomes of metaphysics that seek to explain our predicament in more rational terms. It also exposes the myopia of so many contemporary Christians who prefer to leave the mysteries of scriptural revelation and the insights of the Hubble telescope disconnected. While mathematicians are exhilarated by what amounts to a
second Copernican revolution, the church tends to be preoccupied with ways in which the Christian faith can enrich human experience here on earth. How short-sighted, and how disrespectful of the Son of God who gave his life for the
redemption of our planet.
By contrast, Charles Wesley saw the true miracle of the Incarnation:
Let earth and heaven combine,
angels and men agree
To praise in songs divine
the incarnate Deity,
Our God contracted to a span,
incomprehensibly made man.
The more we discover the scope of God's creation, the more miraculous is the birth of God on earth. Most miraculous of all is that the God who created this
awesome universe should have entrusted the good news of Bethlehem to the community called church.
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