Stars Really Do Twinkle…
Maybe I should have known that…
I mean the song clearly states: Twinkle, twinkle little star…
But I don’t know that I’d ever seen them twinkle
I think I thought those were just words that had enough syllables to fit the line
But here in the southern hemisphere…for the first time that I can remember…the stars twinkle.
I noticed it for the first time in June.
One morning I was up long before the sun even considered rising
I was sitting on the deck of our host’s beach house in Cape Town, South Africa
And as I was looking out over the ocean…those stars…were just shimmering.
Like really….they were twinkling.
I didn’t see it again until this month.
In Mozambique, we were in a city…
But here in Swaziland, we’re in the middle of nowhere…surrounded by mountains and sugar cane fields
Enveloped by a sky full of stars
So full that it almost feels as if you can touch them
And they twinkle.
To the point where it feels like you can hear them.
And they shoot across the sky every night.
I don’t know if they’ve always twinkled.
I can’t recall if I’ve seen them do that in the United States.
I know I’ve seen star-filled skies deep in the country fields of Missouri
But I really feel like I would remember a twinkling.
However, maybe my eyes are just now being opened.
I asked the Lord to show me His majesty in a way that left me in awe.
Sometimes I think I forget about His majesty.
When you live in a city where the only noises you hear are people and cars and machinery…
And the only lights you see are those that man created where the sun and moon become just normal, ordinary accessories…
Where you’re surrounded with so many things…and so many things to do…
Somewhere in all of that, I forget.
And then I get to this place where the only sounds are the sounds of things He created…
Where the only lights are the ones that He placed there…
Where I have hardly anything around me. Where my to-do list is nonexistent…or maybe it just doesn’t seem so important anymore…
This place…where He says to me, “Just look at how they twinkle.”
And I stand there…in awe…mesmerized at the majesty of my God…who is also my Father…yet very much a King…and in the same breath a Friend…it blows me away.
The girls I’m with this month have been going out at night and worshipping under the stars…
I think they twinkle more when we sing.
It’s like they’re singing with us.
Perhaps twinkling is how they praise…
“Praise Him sun and moon, praise Him, all you stars of light! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created…” Psalm 148:3 & 5
Quiet your world long enough, drive away from it far enough, and look hard into that night sky…and maybe you’ll see the twinkling…
And remember, it does help if you sing :o).
