A Little Speculation

Stephen Hawking is gone. I was always emotionally moved by his work ethic in a circumstance where his almost useless body did not deter the incredible mind that he possessed. The movie about his life is one that should encourage each of us to work harder and longer and achieve the highest performance level we can in our own environment.

Most people (maybe all who know ALS) did not expect him to live a long life. Yet, he did. I am told he is the longest surviving individual whose body is ravaged by ALS. 76 years is an amazing number given what we know. I wonder. . .

“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,” he wrote in The Grand Design. “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”

Using language about God, Hawking told TIME after the book’s release, is more figurative than literal.

“God is the name people give to the reason we are here,” he said. “But I think that reason is the laws of physics rather than someone with whom one can have a personal relationship. An impersonal God.” (TIME)

Dr. Hawking did not believe God exists, as is clear in his words and writings. His belief that the laws of physics were supreme and sovereign kept him from allowing the Spirit of God to draw him into a relationship with the only possibility for life beyond this place he understood so well from his perspective. Is it possible he lived so long because of the grace of the very God he denied? God knows “a mind is a terrible thing to waste.” Did God give him a multitude of years, a plethora of opportunities to see the Truth, the Light, the Way?

I don’t know, of course. But isn’t that just like God?