Putting things in perspective...

I first saw these images a number of years ago when someone sent them to me in an email. I usually hate being forwarded things, but I loved this! It really helps you to put things in perspective. Even though in some ways it could make you feel so small and insignificant, I try not to take it that way. For me, it helps me to realize that its not the end of the world if... (fill in the blanks) and not to sweat the small stuff.

Here's our beautiful planet.. and I am but the size of a speck of dust.

THIS IS A HUBBLE TELESCOPE ULTRA DEEP FIELD INFRARED VIEW OF COUNTLESS 'ENTIRE' GALAXIES BILLIONS OF LIGHT-YEARS AWAY.

THE HUBBLE SCIENTISTS THEN POINTED THE TELESCOPE AT ONE OF THE DARKEST REGIONS FROM THE PHOTO ABOVE (A PLACE WHERE THEY DIDN'T THINK THERE WERE ANY STARS OR GALAXIES). BELOW IS THEIR SURPRISING PHOTO OF WHAT THEY FOUND

I can hardly even wrap my mind around HOW BIG THE UNIVERSE IS!!!



Then we can also put things in perspective in the micro scale, which is an equally dumb-founding proposition. There's a good illustration at the University of Utah site with regard to cell size.

Yesterday I heard the analogy, if you were to blow up a basketball to the size of the earth, an atom within that basketball would be the size of a grape.

Then if you were to blow up that atom to the size of a football field, the nucleus within the atom (the area with the protons and neutrons the mass.. or the "stuff" of an atom), it would be the size of marble. The rest is just emptiness, with some very very very tiny electrons whizzing around (an electron is 1/2000 the size of a proton). So every 'thing' that we see is really made from NOTHING. Crazyness. As Arthur Conan Doyle said "life is infinitely stranger than anything the mind could invent".

Anyway, this is a great little video that someone wonderful put together to see both the micro and macro scale of things.



So just remember... when life does feel crazy or stranger than anything the mind could invent, always remind yourself to put things in perspective.

If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know. 1 Corinthians 8:2