The Story of Everything | Official Trailer

Reflection

There is a particular wonder in tracing the story of everything, from the vast beginnings of the cosmos down to the intricate detail hidden inside a single strand of DNA, because it places human life within a scale that is both humbling and astonishing. The psalmist captures something of this dual reaction, awe at scale and awe at intimate detail, when he writes, 'When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers... what is man that you are mindful of him?' (Psalm 8:3-4). That question, asked while considering the sky, is really a question about significance, whether something so vast could possibly care about something so small. A documentary spanning cosmic origins to molecular complexity invites viewers into exactly that tension, wonder at immensity paired with wonder at intricacy, and implicitly asks what kind of story could hold both scales together coherently. Whatever conclusions a viewer draws, engaging seriously with the sheer scale and detail of the universe is itself a kind of worshipful attention, rarely wasted time.

Questions to sit with

• Which affects you more, the vastness of the cosmos or the intricacy of something microscopic like DNA?
• How do you personally answer the psalmist's question, 'what is man that you are mindful of him'?
• What does engaging with the scale of the universe do to your sense of your own significance?