13.7 billion years ago the Universe came into being. The Original Fireball sent particles flying forth creating both space and time. It grew from a miniscule size to an area larger that the whole of the Milky Way Galaxy in a fraction of a second.
The Universe found the right speed of Expansion. The Fireball cooled and the particles bonded together to form atoms. These atoms condensed into massive clouds which burst into blazing stars 12.7 billion years ago.
Billions of clustering stars formed Galaxies 10 billion years ago. The cloud eventually cleared away, and the vast Universe became transparent as it is today.
The Solar System was formed. Here begins the story of Earth, occupying a life-friendly orbit away from the Sun's scorching heat, yet near enough to avoid the icy cold of the outer planets. The conditions are right for Earth to nurture life, 4.5 billion years ago.
A Supernova, our Mother Star exploded 4.6 billion years ago. From this Stupendous event all life would eventually emerge. Everything in existence is but "the journey-work of stardust."
Earth learns to take nourishment from the Sun, 3.5 billion years ago. Bacteria capture the Sun's photons and store its energy as food.
Bacteria, amphibians, emerged, followed by insects and lizards, dragonflies and butterflies; birds, worms and wolves; daffodils and dinosaurs; peach trees and palm trees. Every one of the millions of species that have walked the Earth, swam in the seas and flew in the skies owes its very existence to the first simple cells that evolved in the oceans 2.2 billion years ago.
Single-celled organisms shared their genetic qualities and the gift of sexuality emerged 1.3 billion years ago. The dance of nature flourished with a million new faces every minute - a great bursting forth of a diversity of new life-forms.
Abundance and great flourescence was everywhere. Plants and fungi burst forth 500 million years ago; trees marched across the land, whilst myriads of flowers with a dazzling array of colours opened their hearts to the sun and threw their petals to the wind.
Our earliest ancestors began evolving 2.6 million years ago. The human is that being in which the Universe admires its own stupendous beauty. Touched by the grandeur and power of the natural world, humans became conscious of belonging to an awesome universe and celebrated their relationship in ritual and dance.
Humanity flowered in all its fullness in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. He entered the source of all Life by the way he lived and by the Love he shared. He broke down the barriers that had been erected in our evolutionary past. The God he knew was the God of "Life in abundance. " He lights up a Universe that is filled with Divine presence. Jesus is the flame that will not go out.
