The universe smiled this morning

The familiar “smiley face” icon was reportedly created in 1963 by graphic designer Harvey Ball for the State Mutual Life Assurance Company to increase employee morale. The design took him less than ten minutes to complete, and he was paid $45 for his work.

This morning, the world was treated to a “smiley face” of far more cosmic dimensions: Venus, Saturn, and the moon aligned during a rare triple conjunction. The crescent moon looked like a grin, with Venus and Saturn as the two “eyes.”

The three heavenly bodies looked to us on Earth to be close enough in proximity to make a single “face.” In truth, however, the moon is 238,900 miles from us, while Venus is 38,475,000 miles distant and Saturn is 963,800,000 miles away. Because Saturn is so much further from us than Venus, the two “eyes” appeared to be similar in size, even though Saturn is around ten times larger than Venus.

All that to say, what we actually saw this morning and what we thought we saw bore little resemblance to one another.

The seventeenth-century English clergyman Thomas Fuller famously asserted, “Seeing is believing, but feeling is the truth.” As our early morning astronomical experience illustrates, Fuller was far more wrong than he was right.

Will the universe end in 2027?

We don’t know if there is life beyond our planet or if we are alone in the universe. We do not know when life on this planet will end or when the universe will cease. But these facts do not keep us from speculating and then from rebranding speculation as fact.

Consider a New York Post article published after Pope Francis’ death that headlines, “Pope Francis’ successor ‘revealed’ in ancient prophecy plucked from Vatican archives.” The article concerns “The Prophecy of the Popes, a 900-year-old prescient manuscript that is believed by some to predict the next pontiff—and the end of the world.” The document has been interpreted as describing a lineup of church leaders beginning with Celestine II in 1143 and ending with “Peter the Roman” in 2027.

Since the supposed frontrunners in the upcoming conclave include Pietro Parolin of Italy, Peter Turkson of Ghana, and Peter Erdö of Hungary, the ancient “prophecy” seems especially interesting. According to its final entry, the “last pope” will preside over the church during a time of great turmoil culminating in the destruction of Rome and end of the papacy in two years.

So, will the world end in 2027?

Jesus clearly said of his return, “Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (Matthew 24:36). But his assertion has not kept generations of people from claiming to know more than he did.

Satan is pleased with all such speculation, since any assertion claiming that Christ will not return until some future date carries the implicit but false promise that we are safe from such a reckoning today. As CS Lewis noted, in Satan’s view, “the safest road to hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” Any prediction that postpones eternity until 2027 or any other future time distracts us from the fact that “now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Tomorrow is promised to no one.

“Earth laughs in flowers”

Not only do we not know when the world will end, we don’t know when our world will end. However, the fact of our mortality is not welcome to many of us.

Unless we or our loved ones are in mortal pain and certain of heaven through faith in Christ, death seems to be more an enemy than a friend. Viewed through Fuller’s assertion that “seeing is believing, but feeling is the truth,” death ends life, so far as we can see and feel. It often comes in painful ways we can see and feel as well.

As a result, we’d rather avoid the subject, as if feeling immortal makes us immortal. But once again, what we see in reality and what we think we see bear little resemblance to one another.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote poetically of men who farmed the land and called it their own, then he asked:

What Emerson wrote of them is just as true of you and me.

If right now you’re thinking you can ignore these reminders about mortality, that this is a subject for another day and time, that you are too busy to reflect upon such things, ask yourself where such thoughts are coming from.

“Now his grace to us imparts / Eternal sunshine to our hearts”

Seeing is not believing, but believing can be seeing. Feeling is not the truth, but the truth can often be felt.

A week ago today, the Christian world marked Good Friday as the most solemn of days. What the world saw and felt on that day was nothing but death and despair.

However, we know that because of what Jesus did on that day, we can walk with Jesus on this day. Because he paid our debt to free us from our sins, we can walk in his holy presence in intimate communion with him today.

This is not only an invitation from our risen Lord, but an imperative: “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5, my emphases). Every day we postpone eternity is a day we draw closer to it.

In 1524, Martin Luther penned a hymn that makes my point today:

Will you walk in “eternal sunshine” today?