Beginnings – Sun, Moon, and Stars

“And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.  And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.” – Genesis 1:14-19

Our church had the opportunity to study “The Prayer Course” this summer. It was a great tool to strengthen our prayer life and go deeper in communion with God. One of the lessons taught us how to go from meditation, me thinking about God in my Life –  to contemplation, me thinking about God’s work around me and the world – to communion, sitting in reverence of God alone and listening to Him speak.

I put this into practice one quiet morning. I took some time to meditate on the verse in Isaiah 66:1,

“This is what the LORD says: Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool“. What house could you possibly build for Me? And what place could be My home?”

My mind took hold of the part ‘Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool’. Dwelling on the total sovereignty of God, I allowed myself to think way outside of my own little world. I decided I’d like to share with you a glimpse of what I enjoyed with the Lord that morning.

He is seated on His throne in heaven, and earth is His footstool. What we know as the universe, is like the ground by which He walks on. He breathed and all of the planets were formed. They all line up perfectly, rotating as if on their own in perfect unison to all that’s around them. The Milky Way surrounding all that we can see, and yet from earth we cannot see the full bands that we rest within. Instead, we get to see the clarity of the stars and planets in line with us. 

It’s like the Lord draws the curtain during our daytime. We look up and all we see is the sun and the blue “curtains” drawn across our sky. The clouds and rain formations, or the vast greatness of all different hues of blue and white. Yet, when evening approaches, God slowly opens the curtains again as the meld of day and night join in the beautiful array of colours that leave us in awe as the sun and moon transition. Then, in His grace and glory, we look once again at something so much grander than ourselves and this earth. We are reminded of how great and glorious He is by the vast imagery of stars and planets before us. We see His creativity in the shapes and formations of the stars; little twinkles to us, and yet raging, powerful fireballs in actuality. 

If we allow ourselves to look beyond that, if we can even try, there are realms of heavens, beautiful and majestic as they contain the very presence of the Creator Himself. There are many other creatures we are unaware of.  There are heavenly hosts, serving at the feet of Jesus, worshipping the Creator, Saviour, and Redeemer Himself. They see His full glorious, sovereign self, crowned and seated as Victor of all. 

Stars are like the imagery of God. At the beginning of our understanding, we only see a little twinkle in the sky. But as we zoom in through different sized lenses of telescopes, our vision and understanding begins to grow.

At the beginning of our relationship with the Lord, our understanding is small. We know He is there, in the distance, almost unattainable. Yet, as our relationship grows and we study Him through the lens of the Bible, we begin to understand more of His power, fierce love, and strength. The closer we get to Him, the more we are humbled and left in reverential awe of the awesomeness of God. 

May this bring you into your own time of communion with the Lord today.