Starry starry night

Three things the stars teach me

On most clear nights, when I am outside, even for a short while, I have a habit of of looking up at the stars.  Some nights it is a brief moment,  other nights it is as if I am searching the night sky for something lost. 

I have always loved the night sky.   Both the scientist and the Christian in me get great comfort from gazing upward.  Even though I studied space science, and taught it for many years, my mind just cannot wrap around the vastness of the universe, and the complexities of the stars.  I  never cease to be awestruck by the wonders of the the night sky; the sizes, colors, and ages of the stars, the supernovas, nebulas, the galaxies upon galaxies of stars.  Fascinating to me, but that is not what really pulls me to look up most every clear night.

What started within me as curiosity, became something else.  Whenever I look up at the night sky, always, without fail, I feel an inexplicable tug,  like being pulled into an ocean by strong waves.  Those stars pull me closer to God.  I sense His presence.  The glory of heaven shines through each little pin prick of light dotting the darkness.  And I feel that glory when I look up.  I feel wonder and amazement at our Creator.    I feel small, when I gaze up at the heavens,  and any issues or problems that have been ruminating within me, seem small also, and begin to float away, when I stop even for the briefest of moments and  look up at the night sky. It never ever fails me, that wonderful glorious moment of solitude and feeling as if I am in the presence of the Almighty God.   And in that moment, nothing matters but praising Him.

 Lesson ONE:  PRAISE God, and praise Him often 
Praise the Lord...praise Him sun and moon, praise Him all stars of light!  Psalms 148: 1-4

My husband bought me a great telescope years ago.   I  have used it a few times  to look at the lessor objects of the night sky, the moon, planets or a comet.  But I have never used it to focus on a single star, because it is the totality of the night sky that draws me, not a singular object in it.  I enjoy connecting the dots of the constellations, knowing wherever I am,  they are there.  And if it is a clear night, totally clear,   I always have to find Polaris, our North star, our compass at night. The North star has been used for millennia to navigate at night.  One would think it is a huge magnificent star, but it isn't.   It is a teeny tiny little insignificant star.  It certainly doesn't shout out at you, "I'm here".  No, you have to hunt for Polaris.  Follow the two pointer stars of the bigger dipper up, and there it is, the tail star of the little dipper,  small, not very bright, but ALWAYS there.  Never moving, it is in the exact same spot today, tomorrow, next year,  10 years from now.   Just like Jehovah God, the Great I am, the same today, yesterday and tomorrow, He is always there for me, for us, our eternal Guide, pointing us home.  And like Polaris, He doesn't 'shout' at us,  "Here I am".  Rather He wants us to search and seek to find Him.    The world shouts,  He whispers.  The world says busier and busier is better,  He says "Be still and know that I am God".  Perhaps that is what those moments are for me, when I look up at the night sky, my moments of being still, completely still within my soul, looking up, and KNOWING that He is God, my God.

Lesson Two:  
Only those that seek God, will find Him and KNOW Him.
But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.  Deut 4: 29

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A dear dear friend of mine, who passed away too early in her life, left me her telescope.  I was surprised and humbled when her family presented it to me immediately after her memorial service.  She and I shared a love of God, all things nature and the stars.  As you can probably tell from the picture, there is handwriting on it. .  She wrote several scriptures on it, all about praising God.  She wrote these things while in the midst of a 5 year battle with cancer.  The third lesson came from her, from a Persian proverb she had come across in a book.

Lesson Three: 
 " Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars" 

And underneath that she wrote, 
"Remember in our trials when all seems dark, look UP to God."


I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence shall my help come from.  My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Psalm 121: 1-2


So on the next clear night,  look up.    I hope you feel His presence as I do when I see that wondrous site, and that it instills a deeper desire to know Him and praise Him.

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Authors note:  By the way, August is a wonderful month to gaze at the stars.  The annual Perseid meteor showers usually put on quite a show.  At it's peak, you can see 100's of 'falling stars' streak across the sky.  All a display of God's awesome creation!
P.S.  I told you NOT to get me started on the stars!!