Russell V. Delong once said that; “Stars are set in golden sockets in the canopy of the heavens. They are scintillating diamonds mounted in God’s gorgeous universe. The glittering light they cast, radiating from planets millions of light years away, inspire the inhabitants of the earth. The twinkling heavens reveal God’s creative extravagance to beautify and glamorize the universe.”

No wonder someone wrote——

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

How I wonder what you are,

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky!

Yes, little stars multiplied by millions plus Orion and Pleiades and Arcturus, the Milky Way, the Big and Little Dippers, the North Star, the evening star, the northern lights, plus the grandeur of a full moon, cause man to be speechless as he stands under the canopy of divine grandeur, or to murmur, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?”

Suppose the stars appeared only once a year. Can you imagine what men would be doing that night? All other attractions, all other amusements, all other entertainments, all other human extravaganzas would be deserted to behold in wonder and amazements, as God turned on His colossal, heavenly extravaganza.

Stars are so common and seen so often that there is a tendency to take them for granted and to become accustomed to their presence. Emerson wrote, “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how men would believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.”

Carlyle wrote much about the stars. Among other things he observed: “When I gaze into the stars, they look down upon me with pity from their serene and silent spaces, like eyes glistening with tears over the little lot of man. Thousands of generations, all as noisy as our own, have been swallowed up by time, and there remains no record of them any more. Yet, Arcturus and Orion, Sirius and Pleiades, are still shining in their courses. Clear and young, as when the shepherds first noted them in the plain of Shinar.”

Carlyle also wrote: “A star is beautiful; it affords pleasure, not from it is to do, or give, but simply by being what it is. It befits the heavens; it has congruity with the mighty space in which it dwells. It has repose; no force; no force disturbs its eternal peace. It has freedom; no obstruction lies between it and infinity.”

To me, one of the most interesting and striking things about stars is this: They can be seen only at night. In the daytime, when the sun is shining and the birds are singing, the stars are unseen. They come out only when the sun drops beyond the western sky line, the shadows lengthen, the dusk falls, and the evening approaches. When the night arrives the stars also arrive. They come together and depart together. It takes the night to reveal the glory of the stars.

Cloudless nights reveal glittering stars. But sometimes clouds gather, storms rage, lightening flash, and thunders roar. But when the tempest passes and the clouds empty themselves, there are the stars. They were there all the time.

The lives of human beings are made up of sun and rain, fair days and foul. Bright and black, good and bad, golden and drear, mountains and valleys, joy and sorrow, births and deaths, prosperity and adversity, victories and defeats. We have bright days but also black nights.

The one great truth that is wrapped up in this meditation is—-“Only Those Who Walk in Darkness See The Stars.”

If your life is all sunshine and roses you don’t need stars. But when night comes, when darkness enshrouds your soul, when lights all go out, then come the scintillating stars of God’s promises and His divine presence. The Psalmist cried out: “Ye though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me: (Pas. 23:4)

Even when storms and night combine , when it is both dark and tempestuous—-the stars are still there, even though we cannot see them.

So in life, if both blackness and storms come, we know that the stars are just behind the clouds, waiting to pop out in all their dazzling splendor. When cannot see, we can trust. God permits his rain to fall on the just and unjust. The difference is the just know that behind the clouds the stars are shining —-beyond the storms God is reigning.

Welcome to First Church of the Nazarene at 990 Ste. Rte. 41 S.W. in Washington C.H.

Sunday School 9:30 a.m. Worship 10:30 a.m. Sunday night Live 6 p.m.

Wednesday Prayer & Praise 7 p.m.

“Where Faith, Family, and Relationships Matter”