October 19–Have you ever seen the stars? I mean really seen the them, like Abraham saw the them? Last night and the night before last I laid down in the middle of the road at 9 o’clock at night with many other friends on a church camping trip to Big Bend National Park. You cannot believe the stars. Jupiter was as bright as a candle. We could both see the Milky Way as a fuzzy band across the sky, but we are also a part of the Milky Way galaxy. We could see our neighboring Andromeda galaxy through binoculars. (That really changes the question, “Who is my neighbor?”) We couldn’t even begin to count the stars, or answer the children questioning, “How many are there?” It changes God’s promise to Abraham to truly see the stars.
Tonight I’m home from the wilderness of Big Bend, and I have visited my backyard. The sky here is boring: a few determined stars and some airplanes. If this was the only sky I knew to understand God’s promises, how much would I miss? Please, take your children to the wilderness and look up!