According to a traditional Jewish tale, God once said to Abraham, “But for me, you would not be here.” “I know that, Lord,” he responded, “but were I not here, there would be no one to think about you.”

God has given us a mind to consider the beauty and vastness of the world he has created. Let us use this gift to its fullest as we seek to understand this world that God has created. For as Galileo once said, “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”