Earth and the Universe - our place in the great scheme of things

With the development of deep space telescopes, a great deal of new information has come forward about the the expanse of the Universe. 

In the 1500's, people thought that the Earth was the centre of the Universe. 

These dots and lights are not stars or planets.
They are entire galaxies. 

Now we know that:

Earth is one planet which is about 25,000 light years from the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy. 

You would have to travel at the speed of light (which is 186,000 miles per second), for 25,000 years to reach the centre of our own Galaxy. 

Our own Milky Way galaxy probably contains 2 billion planets that are somewhat like Earth and are in the habitable zone around their suns.  These planets would contain liquid water which is the catalyst for life. 

It is now estimated that there are over 100 billion galaxies in the Universe.  There may be 200 billion. We just don't know at this point in time.

The number of planets that may contain intelligent life is in the thousands of billions. 

So...if you thought that God had his finger on your pulse, think again. God has many children and they aren't all "us". 

That is why it is imperative that the inhabitants of this planet, make every effort to make our own world succeed, including:

Do not abandon us, Father.
Help us to achieve our goals.

the prevention of the constant and on-going wars amongst ourselves;
the prevention of religious extremism and terrorism;
the control of climate change and the pollution of our air and of our water; 
the prevention of over-population;
an attempt to increase food production;
an attempt to provide world-wide medical care

God is occupied in the limitless Universe. We can't expect Him to do these things for us. We have to step up and do these things for ourselves. 

However, we ask God to give us the wisdom to carry out these missions. 

God help us. Amen.