In
a time when urban lights did not affect the visibility of stars as they do
today, the Psalmist David looked up and then penned, “The heavens declare the
glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
Eugene
Peterson has rendered this verse, “God’s glory is on tour in the skies,
God-craft on exhibit across the horizon. Madame Day holds classes every
morning, Professor Night lectures each evening" (Psalm 19:1).
As
to tours of the skies, many have written about the first pictures coming in from
the James Webb Space Telescope. And no wonder. They are astounding. From its
position a million miles away from earth, it relays a peak at galaxies that are
as much as millions of light years away. Some of the images are difficult for
astronomers to describe because they’ve never seen anything like these pictures
before and don’t have vocabulary for them.
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| NASA pictures in public domain |
One
of the purposes of this telescope is to search out the origins of the universe,
but that has been written for us as we heard when the NASA astronauts of Apollo
8 read from Genesis on Christmas Eve in 1968, “In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth . . . “
One
writer observed how seeing these pictures makes us seem small.
David,
too, touched on this when he asked, “When I consider your heavens, the work of
your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is
mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”
Then
he answers his own question, “You have made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.”
God’s
ultimate expression of His love and care for us came in the person of his Son
as the apostle John said, “For God so loved the world that he gave His one and
only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life” (John 3:16).
When
we gaze up at the stars tonight, let’s allow them to be a reminder of God’s
vast love for us.
Beverly Varnado is the author of several small town romances from Anaiah Press including her latest, A Season for Everything. All are available at Amazon. A memoir, Faith in the Fashion District, from Crosslink Publishing is also available as well as her other books, Give My Love to the Chestnut Trees and Home to Currahee. She also has an Etsy Shop, Beverly Varnado Art.
To explore the web version of One Ringing Bell, please visit bev-oneringingbell.blogspot.com
Beverly Varnado copyright 2022