A galactic vantage
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On a clear night, on a prominence above one of our large cities, a person can look across the expanse of variegated pinpoints of light with some fascination for all the people they represent. The scene can be enchanting — comparable to viewing through a telescope the infinite expansion of the heavens above.
Indeed, viewing city lights extending as far as the eye can see — and imagining the numbers of people for whom they illuminate — might cause a person to wonder as to the significance of a single soul. Then, thinking about a single soul when compared to the planet's 6.5 billion people, a person may begin to suspect that, taken among the vastness of humanity, a single, solitary person is insignificant.
And we are so often minimized in our normal circles of life — our commutes to work, our talking back to electronic voices, our shopping in football field-sized stores — compound this inner suspicion. Our circles of life are at once global in perspective but microscopic in interaction. Are we, indeed, just a speck of dust amidst the vast population around us?
A look from a higher perspective tells us that nothing is further from the truth.
From a galactic vantage, every living creature is of monumental significance. Every protozoa, every science lab flatworm or fruit fly, every domesticated pet, every untamed beast is statistically important. Because in our universe, life has been found on but one planet — ours. Think, then, of the magnificent human creature that we are: transcendent over them all.
Some estimates place the whole human population of the history of the world generously at around 30 billion; its current population at about 6.45 billion. While those numbers are beyond our real comprehension, let us look at some other numbers that are yet more incomprehensible.
Astronomers have estimated that in the visible universe exist some 240 billion galaxies. Each galaxy consists, really, of an innumerable context of heavenly bodies that also number in the unfathomable billions. Yet each such body is unique and most are of such incredible proportion and presence that, taken individually or with the whole, boggles understanding.
Thus even to our limited capacities, the ratio is impressive. For every man, woman and child who has ever graced this planet are eight galaxies. That makes the average, normal human a very rare phenomenon in the universe. Each human who has ever lived is an anomaly of outer space; each human now alive is a living miracle.
We respond as did Moses when he "beheld the world and the ends thereof, and all the children of men which are, and which were created; of the same he greatly marveled and wondered" (Moses1:10).
"The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine.
"And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words" the Lord said to Moses. (Moses1:37-38).
"For behold, this is my work and my glory — to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39).
This concerns the known universe, but what about the unknown universe?"
As the late Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve once observed: "By viewing the stretching cosmos, we can humbly contemplate the vastness of divine handiwork. Long before He was born at Bethlehem and became known as Jesus of Nazareth, our Savior was Jehovah. Way back then, under the direction of the Father, Christ was the Lord of the universe, who created worlds without numberof which ours is only one (see Eph. 3:9; Heb. 1:2).
"How many planets are there in the universe with people on them? We dont know, but we are not alone in the universe! God is not the God of only one planet! (From "Special Witnesses of Christ," Ensign, Apr 2001).
To consider the outer space we do not know is to consider the width of eternity. This creation speaks of greatness of our Creator, and the remarkable nature of each and every one of His remarkable creations, including every single human being.
This is a far cry from an insignificance.
