Baby Bear Planet

            There is a term used by some in physics to describe how everything in our world is set up perfectly for life to exist. Based on the children’s story of Goldilocks and the three bears, the expression “Goldilocks planet” sums up how everything that makes life possible on Earth is “just right.”

            From the moment of the Big Bang, when the very laws of physics were written, the strength of attraction between subatomic particles had to be exact–too strong and the universe wouldn’t expand, too weak and matter couldn’t form.

            The uniqueness of the water molecule is another example of just right properties. Every other element and molecule–I know of only one rare exception–shrinks as it cools, becoming denser. Water molecules form a unique structure as they freeze, spreading out. Because of this, ice floats. That might not seem like a big deal, but if the water on top of a lake or river became denser as it froze, it would sink, and the warmer water underneath would rise to the surface. This warm water would cool, freeze, and sink, and the process would repeat until the lake were entirely frozen, killing everything in it. Because of water’s unique freezing properties, life on Earth can exist.

            There are countless more examples of “just right” principles. Some think that like Goldilocks, we just sort of stumbled into a place that happened to be ideal, like some big, happy accident. How convenient for Goldilocks that everything was just right. The fact is, everything was just right for Goldilocks, not by some random happenstance, but because Mama Bear and Papa Bear worked very hard to make everything just right for Baby Bear. The temperature of the porridge, the height of the chair, and the softness of the bed were designed and created for Baby Bear by loving parents.

            We are not Goldilockses, who just happened to stumble upon this universe. We have a caring Heavenly Father who planned and worked things out for us. This is not a Goldilocks planet, but a Baby Bear Planet, where everything, by divine design, is just right.