The Hubble's Empty Patch of Sky

In 1995, astronomer Robert Williams made a request that his colleagues thought was wasteful. He asked to point the Hubble Space Telescope at a tiny, seemingly empty patch of sky near the Big Dipper — a dark sliver no bigger than a grain of sand held at arm's length. For ten consecutive days, Hubble gathered light from that one unremarkable spot where no one expected to find anything at all.

When the image finally resolved, the scientific community fell silent. That "empty" patch contained over three thousand galaxies — not stars, but entire galaxies, each holding billions of stars. What appeared to be nothing was, in fact, an ocean of worlds beyond comprehension.

This is the God of Ephesians 3:20. When we bring our prayers to the Almighty, we come holding a grain of sand. We pray for patience with a difficult coworker, for enough money to cover the electric bill, for the courage to get through Tuesday. These prayers are not small — they matter deeply. But God looks at that same small, dark space where we see only our modest request, and He sees galaxies.

Paul writes that God "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." Our imagination has a ceiling. God does not. We ask for a pinpoint of light. He has already prepared a universe.