He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name. (Amos 5:8 ESV)
Stars and Faith
One summer, as a part of a Boy Scout Merit Badge, I memorized the names and locations of the 50 brightest stars. I suppose if I had ever been lost in the woods, I would have a valuable resource!
A few years ago, while investigating some astronomical concepts, I found that the 50 stars that I had memorized had not changed! They remained the 50 brightest stars, and they remained in the same locations!
I was not really surprised.
But Amos understood my excitement.
Those stars are from my short-lived perspective, unchanging. Those stars are a part of the cycle of day and night, light and dark, winter and summer. Those stars are regular, reliable, predictable, and familiar.
The Lord made them.
The things that I make usually are recognizable as mine, often taking on my characteristics.
And what the Lord made has His characteristics. He, like His stars, is regular, reliable, predictable, and familiar, too.
When we feel unsettled, unstable, and insecure, look up at the stars. The same stars that Adam saw. The same stars that Abraham saw. The same stars that Amos saw. The same stars that Paul saw. The same stars that Martin Luther saw. The same stars that George Washington saw. The same stars that Robert Burns saw. The same stars I saw as a lad. The same stars I saw yesterday. The same stars I will likely see tomorrow.
The Lord made them.
Take the faith God grants us.