Johannes Kepler and the Geometry of Heaven

In 1619, the German astronomer Johannes Kepler published his masterwork and wept. After twenty years of painstaking calculations, he had finally discovered the mathematical laws governing planetary motion — the precise elliptical paths the planets trace around the sun. In the margins of his manuscript, Kepler scrawled a prayer: "I thank Thee, Lord God our Creator, that Thou hast allowed me to see the beauty in Thy work of creation."

Kepler never saw a conflict between his telescope and his Bible. He called astronomy "thinking God's thoughts after Him." Every equation he scratched onto parchment by candlelight in Prague confirmed what the shepherd-king David had sung centuries earlier — that the heavens are not silent. They speak. They pour forth knowledge night after night, in a language that needs no translation.

What struck Kepler most was the elegance. The orbits were not chaotic but ordered, not random but breathtakingly precise. He found the fingerprints of the Almighty in geometry itself.

Psalm 19 reminds us that God has written two books for His people. The first is creation, where stars and seasons testify to His power. The second is His Word, perfect and sure, sweeter than honey, more precious than gold. Kepler spent his life reading both books and found they told the same story — that the God who flung the galaxies into place is the same God who draws near to the human heart.