The Smallest Patch of Sky

In December 1995, astronomers at NASA made a bold decision: they pointed the Hubble Space Telescope at one of the emptiest-looking patches of night sky — a region near the Big Dipper so small it would be covered by a grain of sand held at arm's length. For ten straight days, Hubble stared into that apparent void.

What came back changed everything. That tiny sliver of "nothing" contained over three thousand galaxies — each one home to billions of stars, many likely surrounded by worlds of their own. Scientists called it the Hubble Deep Field, and it revealed that nearly every dark point in the sky, if studied long enough, blazes with light.

The Apostle Paul wrote that we should "consider others as more significant than yourselves" (Philippians 2:3). That kind of humility doesn't come naturally. Our instinct is to place ourselves at the center — the main event. But creation itself gently pushes back. The universe is not the backdrop to our story; we are a grain of sand held up against an expanse crafted by the Most High.

Humility isn't self-loathing. It's accurate seeing. It's staring into the deep field of God's creation and realizing that the same God who filled three thousand galaxies into a pinprick of sky also knows your name. That truth should fill us not with shame, but with wonder — and with a little more patience for the person beside us, who is just as small, and just as beloved.