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Once Upon a Starry Night

My dad was a victim of divorce. In the early 1950's as a young teen his parents separated and he was sent off to boarding school to avoid the shuffling between homes. He was left to grieve the loss of his family on his own. He spent several years adjusting to this life but still felt something was missing. During his senior year of high school, at eighteen years old, he sat outside one dark night on the lawn of Wilbraham Academy in Massachusetts. He took in the stars as if for the first time, thousands visible to the naked eye left him feeling small in the vastness.
"What is the point of all this?" he asked into the night.
"Someday you'll understand," a voice replied. The experience filled him with wonder. Who spoke to him as if right next to him while he was sitting alone in the field?

 One evening many years later, now married and with a family of his own, he took out his Bible as he'd gotten into the habit of doing since finding faith in God and turned to the book he'd left off reading the night before. 

 "Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing."
-Isaiah 40:26 (NIV)

 When he read this verse he remembered being alone in the field that night so many years earlier. It was at that moment he understood whose voice he'd heard. 

 God was speaking to my father in a voice not many of us are privileged to hear in this lifetime. God was beginning a series of events that would eventually lead my parents into a relationship with Him. He was wooing my dad with some of His best work. When we take time to view the God-created masterpiece that is found all around us in nature we get a small glimpse of who He is. A starry night is one of the best ways He introduces Himself to us.

 "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 end of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes it circuit to the other; nothing is deprived from its warmth." - Psalm 19:1-6 (NIV)

 God desires to win you over in the same way. He handcrafted the universe and it only reveals the slightest glimpse of His majesty. I read a tee shirt the other day that said, "God took six days to make the world and since it took nine months to make me I'm kind of a big deal." You are! You are a huge deal. 

 The next time you're able to view the stars I dare you to step outside and take it all in. If you want to know more, ask. 

 "God, show me who you are. Please tell me there is more to life than what I see."

 This prayer will always be answered.

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