All Things Bright and Beautiful

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” ~Psalm 19:1

It can be difficult to get a truly clear view of the stars. Almost everywhere you go there is some artificial light pollution. There are exceptions, of course, but even if you go to the top of a mountain or the middle of the sea, there’s still actual pollution in the atmosphere which makes a clear view of the stars hard to achieve.

So what’s up there? Scientists tell us there are between two hundred billion and two trillion galaxies out there, each containing some one hundred billion stars. In other words, the number of stars in the universe is around two billion trillion stars. If each human being on planet Earth laid claim to a portion of these stars, we would each end up with twenty-five quadrillion stars (that’s fifteen zeros!). And the Bible tells us that the Lord God made them all.

Consider for a moment the sheer magnitude of God’s power. Every second, our sun produces one million times the amount of energy that the entire earth uses in a calendar year, and it is estimated that the sun has enough innate energy to keep producing light and heat for another ten billion years. One second of the sun’s energy could power everything on earth for a year, and our sun is one of two hundred billion trillion stars. God’s power in creation is truly incomprehensible.

Not only did God’s power create all these stars (just by speaking, by the way), He also preserves them. It is His continued work of upholding all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3) that is on display in the universe around us. It’s no wonder that the psalmist declares that the heavens proclaim God’s glory. Have you ever looked up at the night sky and thought about the glory of God in all the bright and beautiful stars above? You should.

Now here comes the mind-blowing thing (as if all that power in creation wasn’t enough): the same God who made all the stars, who holds them all in the span of His hand (Isa. 40:12), who named each one of them (Psa. 147:4)— He loves you so much that He gave His only Son to die for your sins (John 3:16). The thing that ought to amaze us far more than the energy of the sun or the sheer number of stars in the universe is the love of God for sinners. When we were still His enemies, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8).

Are you amazed by the love of God? I worry we’re more easily amazed by creation than redemption. My friend, for every look you cast upward toward the stars, cast ten looks toward the cross. It is far more magnificent, far more amazing, far more powerful, than all the stars in the universe, for on the cross God’s love for sinners was displayed.

Rev. Kyle Lockhart, Pastor of Teaching & Spiritual Formation