Stargazing

The change of seasons in the UK brings shorter days and longer nights. This means that it gets dark earlier, so autumn (or fall, for our American friends), is a great time to get out and do a little star gazing in the evening. If it is a clear night when the moon rises late, or when it is not too full and bright, then the sky is quickly dark enough to spot the brightest stars. As your eyes acclimatise to the darkness, you gradually make out the rest of the stars in the constellations to which those brightest stars belong. Occasionally you might even catch a glimpse of the sweep of the Milky Way. Even in the relatively urban areas in the south of the UK, the sky is amazing and in so called ‘dark-sky’ areas, where light pollution is less, it is absolutely awesome!

The more you focus on the twinkling lights in a dark sky the more you enter an out-of-this world moment. Scientists tell us stars are just suns like our sun. Some have other solar systems, and they are made of gases that also occur in our ‘normal’ physical world. But, when you look up into the heavens, the beauty, the vastness, the mind-blowing ideas of distance and size, then the experience is not just one of understanding cosmology or physics, but something superbly spiritual. In the heavens it is as if the physical touches the spiritual. It seems David had a similar feeling, I wonder if he was looking up at the sky from his desert hideout, fleeing from king Saul and desperately in need of a reminder of the power and glory of his mighty God.

David starts his psalm praising God, whose glory is beyond our comprehension. ‘Oh Lord, our Lord how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heavens’. He then elaborates and says that looking at the sky, and considering its glorious beauty, puts a new perspective on everything on earth. His response is ‘Oh God, what is man that you are mindful of him’. I feel like that too.

But you may be saying, “Where I live, I can’t see the stars”. How sad it is that we have so illuminated our world with artificial lights that we often miss seeing God’s great light display, the heavens that give us a tantalizing taster of God’s glory. The night sky is God’s window into things beyond our comprehension, God’s reminder of how small we are and how great and wonderful He is.

Why not try a little star gazing this week?

Prayer: Father God, we stand in awe of You, and marvel at all You have made. Your glory and power are beyond our comprehension, yet we know You care about every detail of our lives. Thank You for Your amazing love and how You constantly seek to draw us closer to Yourself. Amen.