“‘Where were you when the foundations of the Earth were laid? Tell me, if you have any understanding….When the stars of the morning sang together and all the children of God raised their voices'” (Job 38.4,7).
Something about when the poets of the Bible anthropomorphize Creation gets to me. In the Psalms, there’s the image of the trees clapping their hands while the hills leap like rams. But top of the list is this passage from Job, where at the beginning of time when all things were newly made, the stars of the sky sang together. I can’t help but think of the Earth, pink and raw from being newly born, being filled with the Heavens Above singing in this great, universal harmony.
What the poet didn’t realize, I’ll bet, is that the song is still being sung.
Now you may be thinking that you can’t sing in space. And, that’s true. Singing, like all the other sounds we hear, requires air. You need air and its molecules to vibrate. It’s those vibrations that cross rooms and playgrounds that are then picked up by the sensitive organs inside our ears. And the universe around us is empty of air.
But, it turns out, there’s another way to “hear” sounds that our universe produces. This takes some technology, and some theories, about which our poet would have never imagined.
Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicted the existence of gravitational waves. I’m not going to pretend I understand the science here (particularly not the math), but it starts with the idea that Einstein proposed that all of space is curved, meaning that if the universe were a great sheet of rubber any object would make a dent within it. the bigger the object, the bigger the impression and the greater the width of its indentation. The sun is a big object; so, it makes a big dent in the “surface” of the universe. And all the worlds of our solar system are riding around that indentation at various depths.
As things move, they make waves in the universe. Most of these are really small, but really big things make bigger waves. And, as with sound, the higher the wave the bigger the noise. And, it turns out, if you have the right ears you can listen in on the song the universe is singing.
I’ll admit, what we hear isn’t always pleasant listening, but that may be because it’s not made for our ears. The worlds and stars and black holes of our universe aren’t singing for us but for the One who made them.
But what’s interesting about this passage is that the stars aren’t singing alone. And while some translations render those in harmony with the stars as angels, they are literally the children of God. Children just like you and me, singing along with the stars.
So perhaps, the next clear night you find yourself beneath the stars you might remember that the universe around us is full of the song that’s been sung since time began. It’s a song made of very different voices than the ones we know. But each one is singing to the One who made them.
And they are waiting for us to join in.
Jesus, all things were made by and through you, and to this day they sing praise to you. May we join their voices as the day turns to night and sing with the stars whose name you know.