Out where I live, In Anderson County Tennessee, it's about as far away from city lights as anywhere in the state. I can stand out in the open yard, looking up at the mikly clear sky of stars on a cold autumn night, and marvel. It reminds me of the journey we all take, hurtling upon the earth, through reaches of outerspace. The landscapes of different earth regions, filled with humans hurting, struggling, living, happy, thriving, dying, diseased.
It makes me reflect on these, the days of my youth. How one day it's sitting in a bedroom of toys, lost in a childish world of imagination. The next day, you're nervous driving your father's car to pick up that girl for your very first school dance. Graduation. College. Always, hurtling through the expanse of stars, circling the sun, over, and over, and over, and over. Choices, mistakes, reflection. Always in hind sight. Oh, to do over again. The faces. Faces, fading in memory like they never really existed, anyway. But they did. Souls you encounter along the way. Learning love. Learning patience, disdain, bitterness, friendship.
The vast expanse of stars in the sky always make me think of the Creator. A God who gently poured all the stars into the vast expanse, like splashing a canister of light into the void. The God who created rulers, kingdoms, canyons, clouds, and mountains. He was there throughout all history, and He knows my name. Isiah 45:18 says "For this is what the LORD says— he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited— he says: 'I am the LORD, and there is no other."
On a night like this, the pure expanse of the sky ignites a sobering humility inside me. An exciting, life-giving, sober humility. I breath a prayer, deep in my heart, for mercy to be upon me. I am a selfish person, so God's mercy be upon me. And, looking up into the milky way, in the cool night air, I realize my heart is not alone. A still small voice breaks through. It says, "I love you."
Friday, October 3, 2008
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