Before

There is an interesting article in the BBC online news titled “Hints of time before the Big Bang.”  Please click on the title link and take a look at the article.

The article talks about cosmic microwave backgrounds, time, galaxies, the origin of the universe, the laws of thermodynamics and lots of other types of scientific things that are way over my head.  The article centers on the research and theories of a team of cosmologists and physicists from the California Institute for Technology (Caltech).  They are wrestling with the idea that there was something from which the current universe came—a “parent” of our universe.

At one point in the article the research professor from Caltech urges other professors to “broaden their horizons” as it relates to what was “before” the universe.  He says, “We're trained to say there was no time before the Big Bang, when we should say that we don't know whether there was anything - or if there was, what it was." 

After reading and reflecting on this article my mind went to some passages of scripture:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  Genesis 1:1 (NIV)

“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 (NIV)

“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.”  Proverbs 25:2 (NIV)

There are so many questions, theories and ideas about the origins of all that exists. Humankind learns more and more everyday about the universe and every ounce of the new information is replete with the glory of God.  It is fun thinking about how the universe came to be and about what came before the universe, but it is even greater to know who came before.  The one who came before was the originator of time as we know it.  He is the one “through whom all things were made” and it is through Him that all things continue to exist.  The one who came before is the same one that is present with us in the here and now.  It is the one who loves us most—Jesus.