In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it (John 1:1-5).

I’m always amazed at and a bit amused by the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).  The search is related in part to what is called the Fermi paradox:

The apparent size and age of the universe suggest that many technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations ought to exist. However, this hypothesis seems inconsistent with the lack of observational evidence to support it.

This lack of evidence has broadened the search to merely finding evidence of life—any kind of life—outside of the earth’s atmosphere.  The reason, of course, is that if scientists find even the simplest form of life outside earth’s biosphere, they could extrapolate from such a fact that life is not unique to the earth and that, indeed, maybe other intelligent civilizations do exist “out there.”   SETI was the theme of Carl Sagan’s novel Contact and the movie made from it.  [See the RBC Discovery Series booklet "Are We Alone in the Cosmos?"]

You may recall the famous Mars rock that some scientists suggested may contain fossilized remains of primitive life.  The extensive media coverage that very questionable “discovery” made provided evidence of another sort: that some people and their organizations (including several governments) are willing to spend billions for scientific evidence that we are not alone—and give to secular humanists a weapon to use against “foolish” religious people who actually believe that life did not arise naturally, but exists because of the supernatural Word.  This seems to be the driving purpose behind the careers of hundreds of anti-Christian scientists.

To this point the score seems to be zero for facts pointing to life anywhere else but earth opposed to hundreds of billions of facts for life on earth.  In fact, the universe we know seems to be entirely hostile to life—except on earth.  But because we have life and are surrounded by life, I believe we take it for granted to such an extent that we devalue it.  The prologue to the book of John should compel us to awe regarding the fact of life:  it has its origin in Christ the Creator, our Savior.  So even the simplest forms of life are remarkable.

We need to recover the fascination we had as children with the life that surrounds us—fascination I saw even this past weekend in a couple of our grandchildren, one of whom was mesmerized by a tiny speckled beetle some five times smaller than a ladybug and the other by an “inch worm” actually about a quarter of an inch in length that she allowed to roam her index finger.  This reminded me of a school recess exercise I once undertook with my friend Lanny.  He and I brought magnifiers to school one spring and spent several recess sessions competing with each other over finding the smallest living creature.  The micro rock stars, of course, were the tiny red mites we found in great abundance.  They were about the size of four grains of sand.  Lanny and I of course did not know this about these creatures:

The presence of red velvet mites is extremely important to the environment. “These mites are part of a community of soil arthropods that is critical in terms of rates of decomposition in woodlands and in maintaining the structure of the entire ecosystem,” says [Liam] Heneghan [of DePaul University]. “By feeding on insects that eat fungi and bacteria, they stimulate the decomposition process. And when they are removed from the area, many critical processes in the soil go much slower. . . . The planet is home to millions upon millions of mites. Biologists believe there may be thousands of species of red velvet mite alone. Mites remain an under-researched enigma, says Heneghan. “I think we have no real idea what their role is,” he continues. “We’ve only come to realize the importance of the food web in the soil in the last 15 to 20 years. It is the great undiscovered frontier.”  [Source]

In my last post I spoke about the goodness of the creation.  That goodness is directly related to life.  I’m not sure how significant we can make it, but the Genesis account speaks of the goodness of the creation first after the appearance and separation of water and soil—the foundational elements of life (vs. 10).  Thereafter, the emergence of every form of life is called good.  And after the creation of man and the outline of his responsibilities regarding the living earth, it is called “very good.”  God is not only good and great, He is also life.

As amazing as their extraterrestrial excursions are, most astronauts will tell you that the greatest benefit they gained from their experience was to reinforce their wonder at the miracle of life on earth—and their becoming convinced even more how we need to value it and protect it.  Scientists have discovered thousands of facts—and about as many mysteries—about the forces, expanse, and dynamics of the universe.  But the greatest mysteries still seem to be the what, why, and how of life on earth and its endless forms.

Perhaps more awe should be demonstrated over the existence and goodness of the living red velvet mite beneath our feet than the most massive—and lifeless—galaxy known to man