DSC_0269 starry night

                                        The heavens declare the glory of God ;                                                the skies proclaim the work of His hands.   Day after day they pour forth speech ;            night after night they reveal knowledge ;   They have no speech, they use no words ;  no sound is heard from them.   Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,  their words to the ends of the world.  In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.            Psalm19:1-4

from horizon to horizon, the sky is filled with them.  too many to count…too many to behold.  the darkest and coldest of nights are their canvas, as if God painted them into being with the flick of His wrist.


they fill the expanse of the universe and not even the most mathematical brain or brilliant scientist can estimate their number with exactness.  in our galaxy alone there is an estimated 400 billion stars.  now, times that by 170 billion galaxies give or take a million . and that is just the “observable” universe.  so, the number is around septillion*…it’s the best guess from astronomers based on what can be seen with the technology available today.

ummmm . ehhhh.  no words.  mind officially blown.

my finite little brain can’t fathom those numbers.  but God knows  and hasn’t lost count.  i don’t know what purpose He had in mind for stars, but according to scripture they are His very words painted in the sky for beauty sake. to display His voice without speech…as though the Artist put them there purely for wonderment.

to make the human heart skip a beat and stand speechless.  so that we can behold God with our eyes…and our souls.  no words are needed to express His unexplainable glory.

because it’s screaming out in the silence of the night sky scattered with a septillion points of light filling the darkness of space in every direction.  and whispering in the vastness of the cool mountain air.  the kind of air that fills and stings the lungs with it’s pureness and draws us in.  into aliveness with every pore of our being.

so, there we were…caught up on a glorious summer night.                                                          caught up in the delight of “withness”.     caught up in laughter and hushed conversation . caught up in each others stories.  caught up in the majesty of mountains and valleys and the wildness of God’s pursuit of the human heart.

we were caught up in aliveness.  an aliveness that doesn’t fear the blackness of night because we know that God will meet us there .    He gives us glimpses of Himself EVERYWHERE.  and just as twilight falls…the first stars begin to shine.  reminding us that we are surrounded by His presence and His glory.

then the stars come out like a watershed of light into the pitch of night . the Father pours out His splendor…and all we can do is stand in AWE and listen to their silent, vast , beautiful song.


photo credit: Jason Reed

*resources used:  how many stars are there?


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