Recently, I left the fast pace of city life to retreat to the slower pace of the country. I attended a retreat at a campground that was an hour’s drive from town. One of my favorite things to do in the country is to sit outside and look at the stars. Though I can see stars in Nashville, city lights often interfere with seeing the dimmer stars. I can see so many more stars when I am away from town. It isn’t until I am in the country that I understand why light is sometimes referred to as pollution. Light on Earth can pollute our vision of the stars.
When looking at the stars, I have an app on my phone that helps me identify whether the bright object is a star, planet, or even a space station. Since I only know a few star constellations, the app helps me to recognize the twinkling, shining, or moving object above my head. I am often in awe of the stars that God has made. I love to see star clusters that I have learned, like the Big Dipper, Orion’s belt, or the Pleiades. I am amazed at the night sky. It also reminds me that even though God made the universe, He loves His people most of all.
The closest star to the Earth is our sun. The next closest star is 4.25 light-years away and is named Proxima Centauri, which means the nearest star of Centaurus. The Greek astronomer Ptolemy named a group of stars the Centaurus constellation after a mythical creature that was half man and half horse. He also named other star constellations after myths of false gods. Though this astronomer lived in the 2nd century (100-170 AD), we still refer to these star constellations by the names he assigned to them. Ptolemy made up names for the star constellations because he did not know they had already been named.
Psalms 147:4 reads, “He (God) determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.” That means that when God made them, He also gave each of them a name! One reason God created the moon and the stars was to fill us with wonder and draw our attention back to Him.
Psalms 19:1 reads, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.” God created each star in the sky! By slowing down to watch the stars twinkle, the planets orbit around the sun, and the moon change its phase, you can join the heavens in declaring the glory of God.
