I’ve always been fascinated by the cosmos. One of my earliest childhood memories is me looking up at my father (he had a big belt buckle that said “PAUL” in condensed block letters). He is explaining how many moons Jupiter has; I tried to visualize twelve moons in the sky. In my mind, they are all lined up, a perfect string of giant pearls in the sky, each like our moon.

Speaking of moons, History Channel’s The Universe is on the TV right now. It’s an amazing show, and today it happens to be about the moons of the solar system. I watch shows like this with the kids - we talk about astronomy all the time. It’s an excellent way to express the infiniteness, complexity, and mystery of creation. There’s so much we don’t know or understand; the default emotion is just awe and amazement.

Back to Earth: To prepare for a FaithQuest-related worship event at Vancouver Church of Christ across the river, I wanted to make a few new animations. Showing the universe behind lyrics during songs about creation and the majesty of the Creator has been done before, but I wanted to make my own “journey” from Earth to space. It starts on the ground, moving through some truly amazing aurora borealis photos to go deeper and deeper through starfields, nebulae, and galaxies. The zooms and spins are long and slow - perfect for something interesting, that’s not too distracting. View and download it here.

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Posted in Faith, Film & Video, Worship Media