I love stargazing, so I’m very thankful to live where I live. Out in the country, you can see stars everywhere. Even the Milky Way. It’s beautiful. However, I am not learned enough in astronomy to find my way around using the stars. I can spot a few dozen consellations, and I can usually tell you the difference between a star and a planet, but I can never remember which direction they’re pointing. That would be nice, but that would take a lot of research and that’s just one of those things that’s fallen into a category of, “Maybe I’ll get to it someday.” We’ll see what happens.
In either case, I love that stars are both beautiful and useful. It’s amazing to me that people can use them like a giant road map in the sky. I was watching the Lion King the other day, and that line Pumbaa says about what he thinks stars are always kills me. He totally has it right, but what a way to phrase it.
On an unrelated note, I got a kick out of the outcry some time back about there being a thirteenth sign in the zodiac now. I had actually heard about Ophiuchus when I was at college in Florida (about nine years ago) and my teacher then told me it was the thirteenth sign in the twelve constellations that encircle our planet. (Please don’t scold me for mentioning the zodiac in this devotion; the zodiac is actually mentioned in scripture. I believe it’s in Job, and in the KJV it’s called the Mazzaroth.)
Stars are fascinating, and to me they display the greatness of God’s power that He could make something so awesome so far away and we can still see them. Maybe that’s why stars enthrall people. Because it’s evidence of worlds far away from us that we can still see a tiny bit of.
Don’t you think that’s how Christians are supposed to be? The evidence of a life to come, proof that there’s something more amazing out there than what we have on our little old planet Earth. We’re not the whole picture, but we’re a sparkling bit of light in a world of darkness, hinting that there’s more to this life.
The verse for today is Philippians 2:14-16.
14 Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. 16 Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.
The NIV says, “then you will shine like stars in the sky.”
Note, we’ll only be “like stars in the sky” if we do everything without complaining and arguing and if we live clean, innocent lives. We can’t shine at all if we’re all tied down in all the same problems and worries nonbelievers have.
That’s my prayer for myself, that I can be like a star shining in the sky. I want to be bright and shining so that people will see what God has done in my life, especially since I did nothing to deserve anything from Him. I want others to understand that there is more to living than just this brief existence we call life. I want my actions to help other people find their way to God.
And that way God’s sacrifice won’t have been in vain. I know it’s Paul writing this to the church of Philippi in this verse, but isn’t God talking through him? I want to live in a way that pleases God so that His investment in me won’t be for nothing.
Always Peachy 