Sitting here at my cabin in the mountains, I reflect on the starry nights that I have observed (which is nice because they’re often clouded by smog in Fresno). Isaiah 40:26 says “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” God accounts for each one of the stars! They are named and never missing. I remember in Genesis 1:16, reading the creation account that after God already made so much, His Word says “He also made the stars”… as if it was no big deal! But it is a huge deal! The stars are accounted for to Him… and they are not made in His image like I am. The stars are called by name… yet they do not have a relationship with Him like I do.
I have a fondness for star-gazing; the black night with tiny lights all around (occasionally joined by an airplane) and the moon. One of my favorite things about it is that I can be in a different place than someone else and still enjoy the same sky. When I am in India, Africa, or whichever one of the countries that I will be in, I will still be able to look at the same stars and moon that my family and friends back home are looking at (although maybe at different times because of that whole rotation thing). It’s one of the only things that in the time I am gone that I will share with them. Psalm 19:1, 2 says “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” The stars. The moon. The heavens. The voice of the sky. No matter where I am, near or far from those I love most, I love the fact that I will be able to hear the same voice of God’s creation as them. I’ve read before that “His creation echoes the truth that He is glorious”. In all lands, He sure is. Isaiah 40:22 says that “He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.” We all dwell under the same tent. I will not be as far away as I think that I am… or is that the true glory to attribute to God? That although I will be so far away, His canopy will still cover us all?
This is my future, but what about my present? What about the people who already live in the places that I am going to? What about the racers who are in distant lands even now? His canopy covers them. I already have something in common with the families I will live with, the people I will minister to, work with, and love on… we are children of God, living under His canopy of the sky as nothing bigger than grasshoppers. This verse has been near and dear to me for a long time now, but in each season of my life, my perspective of it changes a bit. Although everyone I will encounter on my voyage and I are born in different lands and cultures, we are all created in God’s image and live underneath the same canopy He’s provided. I am looking forward to living under different parts of His canopy and see what the people have done with what they’ve been given in each land.
As I write this, I feel a small plea in my heart welling up within me… won’t you look up at the sky with me? Enjoy the same stars, moon, and black night as I will when I am away. Enjoy the canopy He’s provided. Listen to what He’s speaking to you in this land as I listen in whichever one I am in at the time. In this way, we will still experience a bit of the same life. I don’t want to have to enjoy the starry sky alone each night… keep me company, won’t you?
