Two weeks ago, my family and I were camping at Lac des Roches. One evening my youngest daughter and I were sitting on the dock and looking at all the stars. Because there is very little surrounding light in the area, the stars were incredibly bright and highly visible. We sat on the dock for some time just gazing upward. In the time we sat there we saw several “shooting stars” and some satellites moving overhead in the night sky. It was a great bonding moment for my daughter and I, but it was also an awe-inspiring time looking at all those stars.
It reminded me of what Psalmist wrote: Psalms 8:3-4 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? (NIV)
When you look at the stars, the vast number of them, the way they form patterns and shapes up in the sky, it truly makes one feel small. Likely King David must of been looking up at the stars one night, and as he did he recognized two things: one: I am really insignificant in the light of what I see up there in the night sky. Two: God, who created this all, truly is an Almighty God!
Sometimes we humans have a greater impression of who we are than we should. Certainly we humans have done some incredible things throughout history that we can be proud of – and some that we are not so proud of. As we look at some of the great accomplishments of mankind, there certainly can be the tendency to be proud. Yes, we can be proud. But at the same time, as we view the vastness of space, the complexity of the atom, and the incredible intricacy of the human body, to just name three branches of science, we need to guard ourselves in becoming too proud. We need to consider the words of King David as he wrote: “What are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?”
Standing looking up at the incredible night sky, and further, looking at some of the pictures that we have seen taken by the Hubble Telescope, we recognize, or should be recognizing, we are nothing! We need to ask the question: who do we think we are? We are not as great as we think we are.
But instead of feeling lost, or overwhelmed, we should direct our thoughts, and our prayers, to God who created it all. Paul the Apostle wrote: Colossians 1:16 “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible….” Almighty God created all that we see and all that we do not see.
There is a song that I remember singing in Sunday School, “My God is so big so strong and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do.” When you look up at the night sky, you believe what is written in the Bible, and in the words of simple songs like this one. God is so great. He is so mighty! There is nothing that God cannot do.
This is God in whom I trust, whom I love and whom I serve. He is worth our love and our trust. The question is, do you?
– Dan Daase, Clearwater New Life Assembly Church
