What is man?

What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals! (William Shakespeare, Hamlet Act II, scene 2)

Now watch this:



Scott told me about this the other night. Some astronomers point the Hubble Telescope at a patch of sky that seems empty, only to reveal 10,000 galxies within it, whose light hasn't reached us yet since they are so far away.

The voiceover on the video calls this a "humbling" discovery. I have to confess that when Scott told me about this, I immediately felt very small, very insignificant.

This sums it up better than I can:

1

For the leader; "upon the gittith." A psalm of David.

2

O LORD, our Lord, how awesome is your name through all the earth! You have set your majesty above the heavens!

3

Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have drawn a defense against your foes, to silence enemy and avenger.

4

When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars that you set in place--

5

What are humans that you are mindful of them, mere mortals that you care for them?

6

Yet you have made them little less than a god, crowned them with glory and honor.

7

You have given them rule over the works of your hands, put all things at their feet:

8

All sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field,

9

The birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and whatever swims the paths of the seas.

10

O LORD, our Lord, how awesome is your name through all the earth! (Ps. 8:1-10)