Corona Devo 500

It was 3:50 AM and my husband nudged me in the dark of our tent, which was "pitched" 20 minutes from the gorge of the Grand Canyon.  He needed to "use the facilities" which were in a building a short distance away, but who wants to walk in darkness alone?  A buddy on a pre-dawn walk to the bathroom was a wise idea.

But when we stepped out of the tent it was anything but dark.  The night sky, while clouded over when everyone went to bed, was alive and dancing with bright-white stars, planets, and even meteors piercing the inky black drapery of sky and at times dancing across and falling from it.  I had seen billboards  earlier that day boasting "dark sky country" and now I understood their meaning.  We had been sleeping under one of the least light-polluted skies in the United States and we now stood under a breath-taking light show.

We didn't know the names of the constellations that were spread out over our heads in connect-the-dots fashion, but we know Someone who does:

He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns midnight into dawn and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land—the Lord is his name.  ~Amos 5:8

The Lord IS his name.  Have we thought lately about Who He is and what He has done and created?  He made the stars and the planets.  He turns midnight into dawn, and with the same intricacy, precision and dazzle that God utilized to hang the stars, He ordains the steps we will take today.

Perhaps we have been in the midnight, and if so, then perhaps today He will break us into dawn.  And if today our circumstances or hope darkens into night, we can have hope in the cycles and rhythms that God has set in place for the stars and for us too.  The dawn will inevitably come.

The very same God Who had the creativity during Creation to appoint points of light to guard our nights and who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land (Amos 5:8) has orchestrated my life and yours with the same dominion, creativity and beauty-in-outcome.  

My husband and I stood out under the canopy of lights poking holes through the blank canvas for almost an hour.  In a hushed silence, neither of us could be the first to "pull away" from what we were
experiencing with falling stars, shooting stars, twinkling lights and solid white dots across the sky.  It was amazing.  

Consider this today--could the same God who arranged this also be trusted to arrange the situations that are making us anxious/frustrated/passionate/hopeful today?  Could the God who cares where the stars hang each evening care about the hurt in my heart and yours? 

Scripture says, "Yes." 

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, (4) what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?  ~Psalm 8:3-4

God created the heavens, and He has a deep love in His heart for you and me, whom He also created.  He has a plan for us today, and our gravitational pull is toward Him, our Heavenly Father.  Yes, He made the stars that dance in the sky each night and Yes, He made us to dance for Him as we live our lives.  

Some of the stars fell slowly toward earth, and fizzled out until they had gone too dim to see.  I sure have had days and seasons like that.  He...who...darkens day into night—the Lord is his name. (Amos 5:8). 

Other "stars" (I found out later they were meteors) were on a specific trajectory across the sky, and then would "turn" and keep moving, but in a new direction.  I've had times where I had been pursuing a hope/dream/prayer and moving-steadily-along, only to be bumped into a new direction at God's command.  There are times when He calls us and the pours us out into something brand new   He...who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land—the Lord is his name. (Amos 5:8).

God works in beautiful, unexplainable and creative ways.  What got my husband and I up to see the night sky seemed mundane and human.  But that was just what the Lord used to show us His glory in that pre-dawn night sky.  

Keep your eyes and heart open for the mundane and human things that God will use today to show us His glory and remind us that He created us as intricately as the stars.

He made the stars and He made us--just as stunning, beautiful and glorious.  There may be darkness surrounding us, but we were created to shine for Christ and to bring His light to others.  

Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.  ~Daniel 12:3     

Blessings,

sarah

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com