I stopped the other night and looked up at the sky.

There were no clouds; I was away from the city lights, and I looked at the vast array of stars above long enough to wonder about them. Where did they come from? How many are there?

Those stars are there every night, but I almost never look at them or think about them.

But that evening as I gazed at the sky I thought about the time it takes for the light of one star to travel from its source to my eyes.

We measure that time in light years — light travels at so many feet per second, which we call velocity, times the number of seconds in a year gives us the distance that light travels in a year.

Then our astronomers figure out how many light years are needed to travel the distance from the star to us. The published numbers are beyond my understanding or usual thoughts. How could God create all those heavens and the earth?

With all the time needed for the light of those stars to travel to earth, could there have been a big bang?

My engineering background can cause me to wonder at times like this.

I've been an engineer for 57 years. I've been a Christian for 47 years.

The news media recently reported that there will be 7 billion people on the earth in 2012. Seven billion! And all will be different. Every individual thing is unique. No two tree leaves, blades of grass, kernels of corn, dogs, rabbits, fish, whatever, have been identical since the beginning of time.

That is mind-boggling.

The Bible tells us that God knows the name of each of these 7 billion people. God knows your name. And if that is not enough, the Bible says that God knows your every thought, that he hears our cry, and is concerned about your tears.

God's knowledge is beyond human understanding. How can God be God? How can any being do what the Bible says God does? The 20th century theologian Karl Barth wrote that God is "totally other" and that we cannot understand God or know that he exists unless he reveals himself to us.

My testimony and that of so many others is that there came a moment in our lives when God did just that.

Indeed, God revealed himself to me in a moment in September 1961.

Has he revealed himself to you?

If not, all you have to do is ask, "God would you reveal yourself to me?" and he will.

H. Murray Hohns of Makiki is an associate pastor at New Hope Christian Fellowship. The Expressions of Faith column welcomes submissions from leaders in faith and spirituality. Contact: faith@honoluluadvertiser.com, 525-8035.