What's down There?

In my childhood I had a fascination with hidden things. I scoured my basement to find the secret, hidden room, tunnel or passageway that surely had to be there. When those didn't turn up, I shifted my attention to the backyard. More specifically, what would I be able to find if I dug a hole and kept digging, deeper and deeper? Would I find dinosaur bones? Indian artifacts? Lost civilizations? Jimmy Hoffa?

I probably have to blame Jules Verne's book Journey to the Center of the Earth for firing my imagination. He wrote about enormous, ornate caverns; mushroom forests with colossal beasts; and prehistoric seas filled with gargantuan sea monsters. I just knew all kinds of wonders were waiting under our backyard too.

Apparently, I'm not alone in this quest. At some point the Germans, Americans, and Russians all tried to see who could dig the deepest. The winner was Russia. They called it the "Kola Superdeep Borehole." They worked on it from 1970 to 1994 and managed to dig 12,262 meters deep. That sounded mighty far down but, then again, meters don't really do it for me. So I converted it to measurements I understand, and it ends up they dug down 40,229 feet, or 7.62 miles deep. A bit more impressive than the measly hole I was able to manage. Of course, it would have helped if dad hadn't come home from work and asked what I was doing. (I couldn't understand why he seemed so perturbed about it all.)

So the Russians got pretty deep, but after 24 years they quit. Why? Because the temperature at that depth was 356 degrees Fahrenheit, and that was hot enough to melt all the materials they could find to make their drill bits. But even at that staggering depth, they only made it about 0.2 percent of the way through the earth. They weren't even able to make it past the earth's crust into the mantle!

An international team of scientists is currently hoping to go deeper, but they need a couple of things: a billion dollars in funding, and technology to pass some "monumental roadblocks."

I wonder what they'll find.

This old earth God created is pretty incredible. It's amazing what we are discovering and learning about it. But even more, I wonder what kind of mind-blowing stuff God has in store for us? What will we discover when Jesus returns and refashions this planet? What wonders will we find in the new heavens and the new earth? Or think even higher -- what will it be like to see the angels and the heavenly host --or even more fantastic -- to gaze upon the face of God our Father, and to feel the touch of Jesus our Savior?

Time and life have a way of stripping away the child-like sense of wonder we may have once had about this world. But Jesus' sacrifice has opened for us a new and awesome future. We just need to take time every once in a while to remember the beauty, the thrill, and the discoveries that are waiting for us.

This world is a tremendous place -- full of marvel and fascination. That God has created it (and the universe that surrounds it) is yet one more testament to His limitless power and perfect attention to detail.

Have you seen any natural earth location (canyon, mountain, valley, river, ocean, meadow) that spoke to you in a profound way -- in a way that said more than "Wow, that's beautifu!" but rather pointed to the very handiwork of the Maker Himself?

If so, let us know. You can share your thoughts with us by clicking here and commenting.