As the World Turns...

I woke up this morning to the sun shining into my room and the smell of coffee in the air. There was no screaming of who got to watch the television in the family room, even though there shouldn’t ever be any fighting about that since everyone has their own television in their room. However, common sense isn’t as common as many believe it is. So first I made sure that they hadn’t launched a sibling revolt against each other and I had just missed the bloodshed because of my heavy sleeping. To my surprise and glee they were just watching TV together and even laughing. They turned and said their good mornings before going back to their show. My husband was in the kitchen pouring cups of coffee for the both of us. To be honest that is my usual. He spoils me every Sunday with his delicious brew.

Now I know I shouldn’t tempt fate and go looking into things when a day starts off so well, but I’m a mom so it’s almost like we can’t help it. I went around the house and looked into the children’s rooms to see if they were cleaned, well as clean as I would ever expect them to be if I wasn’t the one cleaning them, and they were! Their bathroom was even squared away. It was then that I pinched myself because I had to still be sleeping, but no, it was all real. I’m convinced the Lord sent one of his angels to come to my children while they slept and whisper in their ear what they should do in the morning. That thought actually caused some guilt on my behalf, knowing I should’ve gone to church this morning.

Don’t get me wrong; I know the Lord has bigger fish to fry besides my kids acting right on a Sunday morning, but it’s enticing to think I could rank that high on the cosmic priority list. However, I’ll pop my own bubble before anyone does it for me. Hey, I’m not alone in sometimes thinking the cosmos revolves around me. History has fantastic references of when the powers-that-were had their bubbles busted, but of course, unlike me, they weren’t as ready to listen to reason.

Physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei was well aware of what could happen when people go around popping powerful bubbles.

On this day in 1633, Pope Urban VIII chose Chief Inquisitor Father Vincenzo Maculano da Firenzuola to begin the inquisition of Galileo Galilei. The reason he was in such a mess with the Catholic Church was because he believed the Earth revolved around the Sun and it wasn’t the center of our universe, which was considered sacrilegious by the Church. Now we know that Galileo was absolutely correct, but that didn’t help him much at the time.

Galileo was a man that stood by his scientific beliefs, but that didn’t make him a stupid man. See, this wasn’t the first time he was in trouble for this offense. He didn’t go screaming his beliefs from every rooftop, but he did write about them. Galileo hid his methods by calling his written views a means of “discussion” rather than belief.  However the Church couldn’t have any of that malarkey when they had already deemed the Sun moved around the immovable Earth in scripture.

Even though scientists had known for centuries that the Earth was not the center of the universe, on June 22, 1633 the Church found Galileo guilty of heresy. The Church prohibited Galileo’s book of dialogues and his teachings, as well as condemning him to house arrest for the remainder of his life. It took over three centuries for the Catholic Church to admit Galileo was right and clear his name. I guess this is a case of better really late than never. So, with that history tidbit safely stored in my memory banks I’m going to go and give my kids a big hug and a kiss for being so awesome all on their own. Happy Sunday everyone! 

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