Where Is God in a Universe That Expands?

A couple of nights ago, I found myself thinking about black holes and the curvature of spacetime. It wasn’t a planned deep dive into physics. It all started with a simple question: how can a black hole not be seen/invisible? That question led to one of the most intense conversations I’ve ever had. It started with astrophysics and then slowly turned into theology. And like most of the things I reflect on late at night, it made me more curious than it did give me answers.

I learned that space is not empty. It is a real piece of “fabric” that can bend, stretch, and ripple. This fabric curves because of mass, which is what we feel as gravity. The more mass there is, the stronger the curvature and the stronger the gravity. This is why a black hole’s pull is so strong: its mass is compressed into such a tiny point that even light can’t get away from it. The event horizon is the line that marks the end of visibility (what we can see). Beyond it, not even light can come back. It’s not that the black hole is an empty hole; it’s that our limited perception doesn’t allow us to see past a certain point.

But what excited me was finding out that time is also a part of this fabric. Time doesn’t flow evenly throughout the universe. Time slows down around massive objects because their gravity pulls on the fabric of space more strongly. Time goes by more slowly when there is more gravity. This means that time moves a little slower on Earth than it does in space. And time almost stops close to a black hole. Do you know that one hour near the black hole is equal to thousands of years on earth? That alone changes how I perceive reality. Time doesn’t go in a straight line; it bends or curves relative to the surrounding mass.

And then there’s the expansion of the universe. I used to believe that the galaxies are moving away from each other in some cosmic ocean. Little did I know that the space itself is stretching like an elastic fabric. Space isn’t moving galaxies through it; it’s actively growing and pulling them apart. And here’s the interesting part: this expansion is speeding up. But what or who did it? The scientists call it dark energy, and it’s a force in the universe that we don’t really understand. Dark energy makes up about 68% of the universe we know about. It pushes everything away from one another, making the space between galaxies grow bigger and bigger.

All of this left me thinking: where is God in all this?

What kind of God made the universe that keeps stretching, spacetime that is constantly changing, and stars that collapse and disappear into black holes that bend reality to the point of no return? What kind of God exists in that?

For a while now, I’ve been deconstructing my faith. I have questions that I’m sometimes scared to ask out loud. I grew up believing in a God who was all-knowing, all-loving, and in control. But the more I learn about suffering, physics, and history, the harder it is to hold on to that version of God.

But still… I still have faith in God but not necessarily the all-powerful entity on a throne somewhere above the universe. I still believe in a God that started all of this.

It’s possible that God isn’t outside the universe, looking in. It’s possible that God is the universe—the intelligence within the fabric of spacetime and the consciousness behind every expansion and collapse. He is not a puppeteer or a micromanager but a divine presence that orchestrated the cosmic mystery.

Two years ago, I bought a book by Daniel S. Zachary called “A Leap in Science and a Step of Faith.” He’s an astronomer. I went to one of his talks once, a couple of years ago. The subtitle of the book is “Seeking God for the Scientifically Curious”. I didn’t read it back then. Maybe I wasn’t ready or was still too scared to confess that I didn’t believe the version of God I had been raised up with. But what about now? I believe I’m ready to read it and slowly explore and find answers to my doubts.

The truth is that I’m not looking for a perfect theology anymore. I’m looking for a God who makes sense in a world where stars are born and die, time bends, and the universe is expanding to somewhere or nowhere. I’m looking for a God who can deal with my doubts and doesn’t get scared when I ask, are we the only intelligent beings in all of this?

The design is too accurate and intelligent so I tend to believe that we might not be the only ones. Some entity might be lying awake somewhere else, asking the same questions under a different sky. Or maybe we are alone, but I don’t think we have the capacity to figure it out. It’s just not possible.

I don’t believe in a God who needs me to do everything right anymore. I believe in a God who sees my reconstructing as a gift to myself. And if that means I have to float through this cosmic mystery for a while longer, so be it.

This drifting is holy.

And maybe God isn’t the answer I was searching for but the gravity that keeps pulling me back to the questions.

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