Part 2: Great Lengths

In the vast darkness. Deep in a cloud of gas and dust, a sovereign work begins. Within this distant nebula, gravity causes collisions of hydrogen molecules and atoms begin bouncing off one another. As the collection of molecules grows the temperature begins to rise. When this sphere of super-heated matter reaches seventy centimeters in diameter, the temperature climbs to ten million degrees. At this point, the boiling natural process known as nuclear fusion begins. Hydrogen fuses together to form helium and matter converts to pure energy. Finally, at eighteen million degrees a transformation occurs light bursts forth and a star is born. The light from the infant star races across the cosmos at one hundred and eighty-six thousand miles a second. Taking hundreds, if not thousands of years to finally reach our planet, to pierce the night sky—illuminating where Jesus—the gift of salvation—lies for religious outsiders.