The Night of the Shooting Star

 A Greater Pastime...

Reading is one of my favorite pastimes. I love a good story that grips my attention and makes me feel like the characters are my friend. I was going to read the novel I am currently reading, but I wanted to sit on the porch first with a glass of sweet tea. I like sitting on the porch when it is raining, early morning before the heat, or before bed. I also heard that there were supposed to be meteor showers this weekend. Dad, Callie, and Micah had stood outside for a while to watch for shooting stars, so I stood at the edge of the porch in the dark for a moment before turning on the porch lights and sitting on the porch swing.

I had not sat long when Dad came out of the house with a blanket and turned off the porch light. "Are you going to lay in the grass?" I asked curiously.

I followed him out to the front grass right by the porch. Callie and Micah followed soon after. One funny thing is I sat down for a moment when I realized and said, "Wait, isn't this where that ant pile was?"

"Oh, no, is it?" Dad asked, getting up and asking for a light. Sure enough, he had laid it right on top of the little ant pile. We quickly moved it a couple feet away.

When Mom came out, we laid back to watch the show. I don't know why we don't stargaze more often. It was fun. I smiled when Dad said we should pray together that God would allow all of us to see a shooting star together. A couple of us only saw one at first, but it was still awesome to look at all the stars. We started talking about stars in the Bible, and that got me to thinking of a song we had heard from the Sommerdorf family back when their kids traveled with them - the song was "What would they say if only stars would talk." We were out there for almost 15 minutes when one raced across the sky. It was super long, and I only caught the end of it, but it was still awesome. When the rest went inside, I stayed out there on a blanket, in the dark, all by myself. 

I started to quietly sing "How Great Thou Art" - softly enough to not take away from the moment. I just sang the part about the stars when all of a sudden, the biggest shooting star I have ever seen flew slowly across the sky to get even brighter as it went. I could even see the burning orange glow around it. I started crying. A true girl, I know, but I was just so amazed. I was laughing and crying at the same time. Even something as small as a shooting star made me think of how good God is and how He is mindful of me.  I was able to see two more shooting stars though they were much smaller and more fleeting. Just a few moments before, when everyone was out there, I felt so small looking up at God's vast universe.  Yet God cares for me. I thought of all the times I had put off time with God or chosen something else over Him, and I asked for forgiveness. How great He is to forgive! How great He is in His creation and care for his people!

Stars in the Bible...

I felt so humbled yet loved in that moment over something so simple, yet part of His amazing creation. God created the sun and moon on Creation Day 4, and the Bible adds, "He made the stars also," as if it was an afterthought. I am glad He did for stars are pretty to gaze at. Psalms 147:4 says, “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.” And Job 22:12 - “Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!”

  I thought of Abraham when God promised his seed would be as many as the stars of the sky. I thought of how humbled Abraham must have felt for God to choose him. God loves me and wants to use me.

Daniel the prophet wrote of the end of time when God shall judge the earth - “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” - Daniel 12:3.

The stars were made for a purpose - Jeremiah 31:35

“Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:”

Stars should never be worshipped, but they should cause us to worship the One Who made them. How great He is!