I remember when the stars sang.
The fishpond behind Mama Kate’s house was the favorite hangout for us cousins during the hot South Carolina summers. While our parents rocked on the porch in the evenings, we kids stretched out in the grass and counted shooting stars. Life seemed as simple as a lullaby the teacher at our two-room school taught us. Yet even that simple melody of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” reflected our innate human desire to know more.
On December 25, 2021, NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful infrared space telescope ever created. Then, on July 12, 2022, the incredible first images from outer space revealed the oldest galaxies ever seen by human eyes, including previously invisible details of the birth and death of stars.
Job wanted to know more too. Unlike NASA’s search for knowledge of galaxies millions of light-years away, Job’s quest was about the here and now, his little world. Why did he suffer so much? Why didn’t he die at birth? Why is light given to a person whom God has hedged in? What are people that You test them continually? Why not take away our iniquities? How can we be made right before God? When we die, will we live again?
God finally showed up. Instead of answers, however, He gave Job more questions about the universe’s deeper mysteries. When Job glimpsed the vastness and complexity of God’s majestic handiwork, his perspective changed completely. Ashamed and humbled, he acknowledged his error and repented.
In times of trial and confusion, we, like Job, often rail against God and falsely accuse Him of indifference. We forget the Creator, who determines the number of the stars, calls them by name, and knows our names too. They are engraved on the palm of His hands.
Like Job, we should bow the knee before our omniscient and omnipotent God, whose vast creation defies the imagination and who does all things well.
Look at the stars and let them sing of the greatness of God.
(Photo courtesy of pixabay.)
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Doris T. Stephens has taught in public and private schools and universities. She has also worked in administrative positions in distance education and was the project director for a PBS series to teach Spanish to children. She is actively engaged in local and international Christian ministries and serves on the board of directors for the imago Dei ministry to the French-speaking world.