By Karen Y. Stevens

I’m sure all of you heard they have taken a picture of a black hole this week.  I truly did not believe they existed, but now they have proof that they do or proof of something that they call a behemoth.  

The name behemoth suggests identities ranging from a dinosaur, an elephant, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, or buffalo.  Metaphorically, the name has come to be used for any extremely large or powerful entity, which is why they call the black hole by this name.  The scientist got behemoth from the Bible.

In Job 40:15–17 “Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox.  What strength it has in its loins, what power in the muscles of its belly!  Its tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of its thighs are close-knit.”  

The description runs thru vs 24 but is too long to post here.  

Black holes are extremely camera shy.  

Scientists tell us, these supermassive black holes make themselves visible by spewing charged particles, or by ripping up nearby stars.  A black hole’s extreme gravity prevents light from escaping; it literally bends the light into the hole, so they remain entirely invisible.  

Hence the reason I did not believe they existed.  

Scientists have collected plenty of indirect evidence for black holes over the last half-century, but now they have a rare photo.  

I say all this because it reminds me of Satan.  

Some people do not believe he exists, but there is a lot of evidence that proves he does.  (No picture of him, but I have known some people I could take a snapshot of. LOL!)

I also took note when they stated the extreme gravity in the black hole prevents light from escaping.  

That sounds just like Satan, or some people.  

Satan has such a pull on our lives, and he sucks God or the “light” right out of us.  

Don’t hang around people who pull life from you.  Find people who will reflect your light.

That’s what stars do!  Be a star.

The project of imaging M87’s black hole required observatories across the globe, working in tandem as one virtual Earth-sized radio dish, with sharper vision than any single observatory could achieve on its own.  

This also reminded me of Christians.  

We must be willing to work together to know what Satan is up to and defeat him.  

That requires us leaning on one another, studying and using tools to root him out.  We need to collectively share, as they did to find the black hole in order for the search of truth, to become our reality.  

The black hole weighs in around 6.5 billion times the mass of our sun, so it is no small fry.  But viewed from 55 million light-years away on Earth, the black hole is only about 42 microarcseconds across the sky.

That’s smaller than an orange on the moon that would appear to someone on Earth.  

Satan also tries to make himself look small to us, or non-existent.  He does not want us to know he is there, lurking to take our light away, or worse rip us up like the stars in the black hole.  

Be aware, so you can be prepared.

 

Karen Y. Stevens is the founder of Orange County Christian Writers Guild