The Magnificent Cosmos

In the background of this painting is the Hubble deep field that became visible for the first time in a most remarkable photograph taken of outer space by the Hubble telescope. The telescope, with the lens open for an extended period, focused on a part of the sky that is dark to earthbound telescopes. The telescope captured the faint light from countless, previously unseen distant galaxies which are pictured as small spheres and oblongs in the dark sky. Each person’s history does extend back into the time when galaxies were formed and even before. Although as a biology student I had studied the evolution of species, I hadn’t known that the origin of these species including human beings, of course, extended into the long, long history of the evolving universe and the earth millennia before early plants and animals left a fossil record. I don’t think we have the language or the capacity to grasp and express what this may mean! I find that it offers a certain grandeur to every person and to the natural world as we have arisen out of such an unfathomably long, creative process. This story of our origins can be the occasion of an awakening to the mystery, the grandeur and intrinsic wisdom of the earth and universe. We naturally ask about the directionality of this long story.