Waton:
"SB: yeah just thinking, we are catching the balls or photons that were thrown that long ago. "
Think about this: If light only travelled as photons (particles) then in order for our eye receptors to catch them from billions of light yeas away, we might have to jump around from say Arizona to New York just to catch a couple of them from so far away.
Think of a shotgun blast where the BBs infinitely travel in a larger and larger pattern, but the BB's (photons) are all getting father and farther away from each other making it harder and harder to catch them on our retina.
But, that is not how light works. It is far more interesting than that.
Now think of a circular pond where you chunk a pebble into the middle. The waves generated from the pebble form concentric circles which will eventually reach every point of the shore of the pond..... because it is a wave.
So what light does is this: it travels as an immaterial probability information wave because it is a far more efficient vehicle. But then, upon observation of the wave, the wave collapses into particles (photons) that can be picked up by the retina of your eye. In other words, you don't have to jump around from Arizona to New York just to catch a photon or two.
The 100 year old "two slit experiment" proves all this as fact. Google it and watch some amazing videos.
Pretty cool huh?
It certainly appears that the universe was meant to be observed.
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. - Ps. 19: 1