Where Have All the Stars Gone?

INTRODUCTION

 I don’t spend as much time gazing at the stars as I did when I was younger. When I was in junior high school my friends and I often slept outside and as we talked we would search out the Big and Little Dippers. We would see if we could make out all of the other constellations too. Of course the big thing for us were the shooting stars and the satellites. We could stay fixed on satellites from the time we spotted them until they had moved across the sky where we could no longer see them. I can’t say that I ever became a stargazer or even more than average when it came to my level of fascination for the nighttime sky. But I was aware of it and the countless number of twinkling stars that lit it up. As I grew older, I found that I spent less time noticing that beautiful nighttime sky. One July night something very interesting came to me. I was irrigating my pasture at 2:00 AM when I noticed how bleached out the sky to the east of me was. I could barely see any stars, only the really bright ones were noticeable. I looked over to see if the Big Dipper was there, and it was. It was more visible as it was in the western sky toward the mountains, away from the city. I took a few minutes to examine the sky and asked myself out loud, “Where have all the stars gone? There aren’t as many as there were before.” Instantly, two thoughts rushed into my head. First, I became indifferent toward God. I thought about the covenant between God and Abraham, how God promised He would give Abraham, as many descendants as there are stars. We find reference to this covenant in Genesis 15:5. That first thought brought awkwardness toward God as I questioned why He would take away stars. Take away descendants from Abraham. But my second thought was already in the oven. I already knew the real answer. It had entered in at the same time the first thought did. It was like having a teacher ask a question but give the answer while giving the question. Your mind goes through the process, but you already understand the outcome. The wisdom that I received was simple and easy, yet inspired this work. God has not turned off any stars. There is no less natural light coming from the sky now than there was 40 years ago. The simple truth is that man’s light is working hard to hide God’s light. God’s light is the sun by day and the stars and moon to light the evening. Man’s light is not of its own source, but of artificial means. We produce electricity to light our streets, shops, and homes. Even at 2:00 AM the glare from the city lights up the sky so that God’s light is hidden. God’s Word is a light unto our path. His guidelines, principles, and standards are our roadmap to relationship with Him, which leads to a good life on Earth followed by eternal life with God. Man’s guidelines, principals and standards fall short of God’s best for us and most of the time leads to humanistic theology. This leads us to man’s theology that deceives us into false teaching and non-truths apart from the foundations of God. Just as God’s Word is profound and has depth coming from several angles, ”Where Have All the Stars Gone” has inspired this multi-level feeling/thought/wisdom within me. God spoke to my heart metaphorically that night. He showed me a physical representation of a spiritual activity that is taking place. As man creates his own light that hides God’s light, we find many of our stars today are stars in mans image, not God’s image. Rightly so, stars and childhood heroes are made of people who hit the highest mark within some definition of excellence. Where is your mark of excellence? Is God anywhere in that definition? As a Christian I am called to be salt to the Earth (Mathew 5:13) Salt is used as a preservative and also causes one to thirst. This book cannot quench your thirst but hopefully will cause you come to the well where Jesus stands and says, "Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13. Once Christ Jesus brings water, He also brings preservation through eternal life.