I see the sparkling stars in the crisp predawn sky. It is autumn; one of our first thirty something degree mornings. Bright, twinkling, familiar stars and planets cover the dark background. The more I stare, the more stars I see. Oh how I wish there were no manmade lights competing with their brilliance. Thank You Jesus. That is what I say every time their majestic illumination steals my breath away. It is a glorious sight. Put there to be a sign, a reminder of who has made all I can see and more than I can think or imagine. I am immediately overwhelmed by His indwelling presence. Every cell in my body tingles as it resonates His love for me. I want to melt where I am and stay in that moment.
Yet my dilemma is that although I am spiritually free from sin to live eternally with Him, I am still a slave. A prisoner to my lusts and choices, I suffering the consequences of necessity. I must needs go to work. In order to provide the resources which support my family in the manner in which we have become accustomed to living, I am constrained to meet my employer’s expectation. Be on time, address the necessary challenges to resolve issues and make the organization profitable. (If you use that on your resume, you don’t have to give me credit) I enjoy being married, so off to work I go. Where I have chosen to live, the car I drive, the clothes I wear, even the food I eat all require me to make choices.
It is just not very profitable to speculate the consequences of making other choices. After all I already said I like being married. I could live elsewhere, do without the car, eat less expensively and a myriad of other things. But right now, I won’t. I can however for the briefest of moments, find myself lost in the permeating power of my Lord. I glance at a group of stars which I recognize as a constellation. My eyes seek to find the clusters beyond the brightest ones low on the horizon. I am so limited. Fancy, expensive telescopes on earth and in orbit around it snap pictures which scream to me at this moment, “You ain’t seen nothing yet!” I am free to admire the immense handiwork of the creator who made the amoeba and microbes too small for my eyes to discern.
I see the sparkling stars. I marvel at their placement. It is not about power or wanting to be like God. It is about knowing that I am His chosen Child. That’s child with a capital C. By His choice, by His loving Hand, by His sacrifice on Calvary, I am given the opportunity to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ so that I might be saved from His wrath. He claims me as His. I am the reason He died. He is the reason I live. When I am admiring His handiwork, the joy of being His bride fills my soul beyond its capacity to contain Him. Each star, He has placed to be signs and tell me what time it is. The signs say, He made all of this, He is coming soon, He has purposed from before the foundation of the world that we would recognize His signs.
Shouldn’t we understand that everyone who has ever stared into a star filled night sky has seen these same sparkling stars? Yet some have believed and some have not. Some wonder at what it might mean and some scoff at our insistence of His purpose and plan. That does not change the truth. He said “Behold, I come quickly”. He still means it. He said “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me”. It is His creation. Regardless of how you misinterpret His placement of the stars in the sky, He still put them there to show you the truth of His redemption. He has never turned His back on you or had to come up with a “plan B”. As we attempt to discover what He has already revealed, we fail by assessing our own understanding as superior to His. We observe what He has created and declare how it might have happened, “IF”. His only “IF” is whether you will believe Him. He already knows, but He wants you to know and choose Him.
In the early morning hours the stars will fade, the moon will dim and the majesty of the night sky will diminish. We will anticipate the day. We will consider the necessities of our bondage. After all, I like being married. I enjoy being in a relationship where I am considered a benefit and a blessing. The title of provider brings a swell to the ego. Just as our loving heavenly Father ensures we have the gifts and talents necessary for our roles, we too enjoy using those gifts and being admired for what we accomplish. I can’t make stars. I can however light up the eyes of my family with the results of Godly choices I make. We find we are desired more for what is on the inside than on the outside as we grow closer to the One who made the stars. That is where the true evidence of my slavery is found.
I am, as Paul states, “a bond slave to the Lord Jesus Christ”. My purpose for living is to be pleasing to Him. When I exalt Him, I am of the greatest value. I do not increase who or what He is by my obedience. Nor do I detract from Him in any way when I selfishly assume His glory unto myself. I am able to see all He allows is for my benefit. Nothing He has done is without profit for my good. Pain, suffering, unpleasant events, all intend to draw me closer to His love. His sparkling star filled sky is there for me to see His hand at work in my life and know His eternal desire for my good. The busyness of our existence obscures Him as the storm clouds hide the stars. They are still there. They are not affected by the veil of clouds. If I were to hide in the deepest cave on earth, it would not cause His stars to cease their lively dances.
He made all there is and by His mere thought they consist. The brightest and most intelligent minds in the world often attempt to define our existence without Him. Only the clutter of a mind not focused on Him will consider for even a moment that there is anyone else with a better answer to any wondering thought. He declares and it is so. He denies and it can never be. There is nothing more rock solid and eternally powerful than Him. For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him. He told the oceans how far they could go and limited the number of the cattle which could inhabit a thousand hills. Those who would rebel by refusing His counsel suffer the consequences of their stubborn ignorance. Likewise those who cheerfully obey and embrace His wisdom reap rewards beyond their greatest imagination.
I eagerly anticipate the sparkling stars in the darkened skies. Their light contrasts the deep blackness of space just as the knowledge of God contrasts the limited self-centered minds of men. Apart from Jesus you have no viable explanation for the things your senses tell you are real. There is no requirement for you to understand it all, explain it all, not even to figure it all out. He only asks that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ based on the evidence before you. The miracles, the signs, the wonders, the changed lives, the sudden illumination of your inner being are all the evidences He intends for you to believe. More than any other thing in the morning, the sparkling stars draw me to yearn for His voice. His presence inhabits the praises of His people. I am overjoyed to be His. Every cell in my body tingles as it resonates His love for me. I want to melt where I am and stay in that moment and say “Thank You Jesus!”