When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers
-- the moon and the stars you set in place --
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
Yet you made them only a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
Ps. 8:3-5
We don't get to watch them often because the night sky is usually past the kids' bedtimes. But I promised we'd do it tonight. So around 10:00, we bundled up, laid down our blankets, and cuddled under another blanket to watch the stars for almost an hour.
We laid there in the dark, listening to frogs and crickets and my son, who would remark, "Oh wow!" And then a moment later, "Oh wow!" I asked what he was seeing and he said his eyes were adjusting to the dark and it made it seem like more and more stars were appearing. We would yell, "Did you just see that?" every time a "shooting star" would streak across the sky. And we would watch the satellites travel across the expanse of the sky until they melted into the horizon.
Time just seemed to stand still as we sat, fixated on big exploding balls of gas. How could something, relatively stationary, keep our attention for such a long time? It's almost like we're in some sort of vacuum, where we realize our finiteness and we're subdued by it.
I looked at all those stars and told my kids how scientists believe that those stars have been in the sky for much, much longer than our earth has even existed. That would mean that God provided those explosions of light maybe millions of years before He created our earth. Like He knew that He would create us and so He planned really far ahead. We reflected on that for a minute then my son said, "I don't understand how God was created or how forever can be forever. Sometimes I get mad because I don't understand it."
I told him I understand his frustration since I also struggled with those same thoughts when I was younger. But now, since I've experienced a relationship with Jesus, I don't care that there's so much that I don't understand. Because I trust that understanding whatever "forever" means doesn't matter nearly as much as my promise to stand in the presence of Jesus someday.
The thing is that once I've given God authority over my life, that means I have relinquished control over everything that doesn't belong to me. And understanding infinite concepts with my little brain is not something that belongs to me. I'm free of that and free to allow God to guide my steps. And that's such a peaceful place to be!
So rather than expend my energies to try to make sense of things that belong to God, I would just rather reflect on things like: the same God who created the vast universe also delicately fashioned our human bodies. Our bodies are so intricately designed, so thoughtfully planned out, so lovingly formed. How amazing is He? His attention to detail for our mortal bodies -- that will someday, soon, turn to dust -- is nothing short than an expression of His ridiculously crazy love for us. There seems to be more detail in the creation of our bodies than in the stars that literally outshine us. Since before the dawn of our earth, those stars shone. Long after our earth will cease to exist, those stars will likely still shine. And yet, they are not the crown of His creation. We are. The ones who are made of dust and turn to dust.
What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? Ps. 8:4
I know that a lot of people focus on our insignificance when they observe the immense expanse of the universe. But the message I got tonight was that God loves us more than all those pretty stars and planets and galaxies. I can't even wrap my head around such devotion from Creator God for something so puny as us. This kind of reflection draws my heart into greater worship for Him. But it also puts humans in perspective for me. It seems like if God loves us this much, then I can certainly make a greater effort to love all of His children as well.
