Encouraging Words: The Universe

The Universe

Have you ever thought about the universe? Have you wondered what’s out there? What it’s like? Are there places in the universe like the Star Wars and Star Trek movies? Exactly where is the end of space? Is there a wall several billion light-years away? And why is the universe there? If there are no other people on other planets or other galaxies, why is it so huge? Should we, people on earth, be sending rockets into space to our neighbor planets and on to other solar systems?

These and a thousand other questions come to our minds as we contemplate our universe. But do you realize that dogs have no universe! But that’s absurd! Sure the dog has a universe, he just doesn’t know he has one. That's the point. To not know is to not have. There is a book called “Acres of Diamonds.” It is the story of a man in Arkansas who read about and wanted to become a diamond prospector. He wanted to discover a diamond mine. He wanted it so badly that he sold his farm and went to South Africa. There he prospected for diamonds for several years. He never found a diamond mine and finally returned home to discover that the person who bought his farm had discovered diamonds on the land he sold. He had owned a diamond mine on his property for years but he did not know it. Therefore, he owned a diamond mine, but he did not have a diamond mine. So the dog has no universe. What is it that you don’t have, but don’t know you don’t have? The answer to that question is always, “Nothing.” Because if you don’t know you don’t have it, then you have nothing. Or don’t have anything, as the case may be.

The question you need to think about is, “What is it I don’t have but want?” Acres of Diamonds would tell us to look first in our own back yards, because we do have much that we don’t know we have. Maybe what you want is in your own back yard. Maybe you’ll find nothing, but then again, you may find everything, even a diamond mine.