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I’m sure you have heard of a lightyear. If nothing else, you remember it is the last name of a character in the film Toy Story, you know, Buzz Lightyear! So where did he get his name?
A lightyear is a measurement of distance. It is how far a ray of light will travel in a year. It’s pretty far! A lightyear is nearly 5.9 trillion miles! Or it is nearly 9.5 trillion kilometers! Lightyears are used to measure vast distances across the universe. Did you know the distance across the known universe is calculated to be 46.5 billion lightyears?!
Some see this distance as a problem for faith in the biblical account of creation. They think that billions of years are needed for the light from distant objects to travel to earth. I don’t think so. Here’s why: God created the world with the appearance of age.
Take Adam and Eve. When they were just one hour old, they looked like adults. I think the same is true of the animals. They were not babies or eggs, but mature creatures. Since God created the universe out of nothing, and he created things with the appearance of age, I find it quite reasonable that God could create a distant star at the same time he created the beams of light from it to our earth! To me, lightyears evoke awe at what God has done!
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Bumper music “Landing Place” performed by Mark July, used under license from Shutterstock.