Star Light, Star Bright...

Last night when I got I home after spending some time with a good friend, I took Willow, my two-year old Westie for a nice walk around my neighbourhood.

The air was cool but it wasn't windy so it felt lovely after the few warm days we've had. And as we walked I noticed that the sky was so clear and full of bright stars. We walked down to one of my favourite little spots right on the ocean front and I just stared up at the sky for a while.

There were bright, sparkling stars that seemed to flicker and twinkle as if they were candles in the windows of the heavens. There were faint dots of light I could barely make out with my tired eyes that blanketed the background of the sky. There were also a few moving specs of light, satellites sailing across the dome above us, circling our world and giving us information or connecting us in ways I can't explain.

Earlier in the evening, as darkness crept over the horizon, my friend and I spotted a very bright moving object and later she looked it up and it was the International Space Station traveling so fast across the sky.

We talked about how some people set up special lasers here on earth that target satellites or the space station and can actually calculate the laser to ping off those objects so many miles away. We talked about how amazingly accurate their calculations have to be because if you move one millimeter here on earth, the laser could be miles off from its target.

Standing over the rocks with small gurgling waves sloshing over them, I gazed deep into all of this vast expanse of light and dark, bright and dim, and objects moving so far above me. Suddenly, I felt so small and so insignificant, like I was nothing compared to the stars and galaxies and space. How could I matter? How could I be a somebody on this singular planet that is only a tiny part of our huge universe?

But then I remembered...
I remembered that God created everything, including me.
I remembered that even before I was born Christ died for me.
While I was still being formed inside my mother, God loved me and had a plan for my little life.
I remembered that He created me to be creative, to have fun, to laugh, to cry, to feel for others, to learn, to teach, to walk, to run, to dance, to love.
God makes us matter.

Yes, we are a small part of this vast and ever-expanding universe, but here, on our planet, in our community, we matter. We can chose whether to love or hate, to ignore or stand up, to follow or lead. We have a choice and when I think long enough about that choice I am so glad I have such hope and love in choosing to let God into my life.

Without God, I would truly be lost and insignificant. I would only live for myself and I probably wouldn't matter too much.

With God, His love shines brightly through me, as bright as any star flickering in the dark night sky.