On February 14, 1990, a Family Portrait was taken. That was the official name of it. “Launched on September 5, 1977, Voyagers 1 and 2 were charged with exploring the outer reaches of our solar system. It passed by Jupiter in March of 1979 and Saturn the following year. The gaps between the outer planets are so vast that it was another decade before it passed by Neptune and arrived at the spot where it was to take a series of images of the planets, known as the “Family Portrait” of our solar system.”1
One of the photos taken was named The Pale Blue Dot. Voyager 1 took a picture of the earth 3.7 billion miles away from the sun and that’s all you see in the picture – a pale blue dot surrounded by the blackness of space. Nearly 8.3 billion people live on that pale blue dot that has:
- A diameter of 7,926 miles,2
- An equatorial circumference of 24,901 miles,3
- A land mass of 57.3 million square miles, accounting for just 29% of the earth’s total surface area. 71% is water,4
- The weight is estimated to be 13.17 quintillion pounds (1.317 × 1025pounds),5
- We are 93 million miles from the sun,6
- If the Sun were as tall as a typical front door, Earth would be the size of a nickel.7
- As Earth orbits the Sun, it completes one rotation every 23.9 hours. It takes 365.25 days to complete one trip around the Sun. How do we handle that extra .25 days? Every four years, we have a leap day. You’ll have to wait until 2028 for the next make-up day.8
And from just a few billion miles away, we are just a pale blue dot. From that distance, we seem like a speck and completely insignificant. Yet God chose to establish this speck we call earth to be the place in all the God-created solar system where He would place man. 
And this first man would ruin the pristine beauty of all God had made through one act of disobedience.
From God’s perspective, earth is even smaller than Voyager 1 depicted. The enormity of God is profound and beyond our finite reasoning and comprehension. The Psalmist had a glimpse of realization of this while just sitting on the earth, perhaps out in a pasture as he watched the sheep. Psalms 8:1-4 says, “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. (2) Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. (3) When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; (4) What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”
Bible commentator Matthew Henry writes, “What it is that leads him to admire the condescending favour of God to man; it is his consideration of the lustre and influence of the heavenly bodies, which are within the view of sense … But why does he not take notice of the sun, which much excels them all? Probably because it was in a night-walk, but moon-light, that he entertained and instructed himself with this meditation, when the sun was not within view, but only the moon and the stars, which, though they are not 
altogether so serviceable to man as the sun is, yet are no less demonstrations of the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Creator.”
Henry goes on to say that it is our duty to consider the heavens. Take some time today before you drive to church to appreciate the sunrise. As you drive home from church, hopefully the skies will be clear and you’ll see the stars. According to the calendar, we will have a waning crescent moon so it may not be visible. By the end of the month, though, we will be treated to a waxing gibbous moon and by March 3, a beautiful full moon will grace the night skies.
Remember how very small we are in the scope of the universe and praise the God who has poured His love, affection, and desires upon us. Psalms 19:1-3 reminds us, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. (2) Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. (3) There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.”
1https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/february-14/pale-blue-dot-photo-of-earth-taken-voyager-1
2https://science.nasa.gov/earth/facts/
3https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat51/sub323/entry-8244.html
4https://iere.org/how-much-land-is-on-the-earth/
5https://universeinsight.com/how-much-does-the-earth-weigh/
6https://science.nasa.gov/earth/facts/
7Ibid.
8Ibid
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