The Rings

Did you know that although the rings of Saturn extend outward over 85,000 miles from the planet in various configurations, the average thickness of the rings is only about 30 feet? I don’t know about you, but that is a rather amazing bit of information regarding a part of our solar system.
We cannot see the rings with unaided eyes, but can easily discern them with a small telescope or good binoculars. The larger telescopes give an even better view. Right now the rings are at equinox, or are edge-on toward the earth and are virtually invisible to us. If I remember correctly, that happens about every 15 years or so.
The rings are composed, I read, of primarily water ice with a smattering of mineral matter scattered among the ice chunks. They are a very complex system with moons orbiting within them, disturbing them with their gravitational fields. They change appearance and also in distance from the planet. And I read that some of the moons and their gravitational influences seem to help hold the rings together. I suspect that if we could somehow hover over them and watch them in some kind of accelerated time mode, we would be mesmerized by the intricate dance maneuvers they perform as they orbit the planet along with their moons.
One question I’ve had for a long time is why the rings? I know that as one who believes that our continuum was created by God, I could just say that was the way He wanted to do it. And that would be sufficient for me. However, I enjoy thinking about why God might have chosen to do what He did. Did he do it for the sheer joy of doing it? Did He do it primarily so we could some day see it and wonder? Did He do it because those rings somehow have something to do with our existence? Or was there another reason?
And the time frame astounds me. I am a creationist who believes in an old earth and an old universe. I believe the universe is what it appears to be…massively old (this is not the place to debate that statement). I know there aren’t many of us old earth creationists. It seems that the two main camps are either young earth creationists or old earth evolutionists. I don’t think either are correct. One of these times, I may explain why I think that.
The rings were there long before mankind. And they may well be there long after mankind no longer exists. Were they created for us? Dare we be so bold as to suggest we are that important in the great scheme of things? I leave those questions for you.
I also know that these questions don’t really have answers we can articulate, at least in this life. But one has to admit that as unusual (and even strange) as many of the features of space are, these things tend to pique the interest of more than just a few of us.
Tens of thousands of miles wide, but only thirty feet thick. Interesting, to say the least.