The Invisible Shield Above Us

Every second of every day, a stream of charged particles races from the sun toward Earth at over a million miles per hour. This solar wind carries enough energy to strip away our atmosphere and render the planet lifeless — the way it did to Mars billions of years ago. Yet we walk to the mailbox, plant tomatoes in the garden, and tuck our children into bed without a single thought about it.

The reason is the magnetosphere — Earth's magnetic field — an invisible shield generated deep in our planet's molten iron core. It never switches off. It never takes a break. While we sleep, while we work, while we are completely unaware of the danger hurtling toward us, this field is deflecting lethal radiation around us like water parting around a stone. Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have tracked solar storms powerful enough to knock out power grids, yet the magnetosphere absorbs the worst of it before we ever feel a thing.

The psalmist who wrote Psalm 121 did not know about magnetospheres or solar wind, but he knew the same truth those phenomena reveal: "He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." The Lord's protection is not occasional. It is not triggered by our awareness of danger. Like that magnetic field humming silently in the deep places of the earth, God's keeping power surrounds us — constant, unseen, and utterly faithful — guarding our coming and going, both now and forevermore.