How big is our world?

There's a Stella Artois commercial that most beautifully makes my point. So I went looking for it. Two days later, I'm still looking for it; not for a dearth of examples, but because there are too many Stella Artois commercials. Let's hope they spend as much money on their product as they do on their stunning presentations. ....Hah. I just found it through google images, from a fellow blogger, Rob Orange. I am so grateful, I may now go on with my point.

Anyways, the commercial depicts the age when this stunning brew was created. The Middle Ages were a terrifying time. The earth had edges one could fall off. A ship meandering too far from shore could be burnt up by the sun and crushed in the sea by terrible sea creatures. As silly or exotic as this world view seems to modern man, this was truly their reality.

Consider also the world of biblical Paul and Noah. Their world was closer in shape known to Middle Age man than our modern world. The heavens were a great arc over a flat earth, and Sheol lay in darkness underneath. When the whole world flooded, or were spread with the gospel, it was a much smaller world than the one we know today.

Funnily, it seems that now that we do know it's full size and shape and have even seen the whole world from space, it has shrunk again. We worry over it's upkeep. Our world has become vulnerable. Perhaps this new vision of our world with no political borders, vulnerable to our care and our neglect, will help mankind come to terms with our responsibility.