Star Trek, from my car

Bob and I like stargazing.  I know that sounds romantic, and I suppose it is, until you consider that we get up in the wee pre-dawn hours to drive (further) out into the country (only about 10 minutes) to an isolated farm-access gravel road between a corn patch and a cow field.  In August are the Perseids, an annual meteorological lightshow that is worth craning your neck to see, unless you like to just stretch out on top of the car’s hood, like me. 

Staring into the galaxy beyond the fireballs that are “up close and personal”, you know, like Proxima Centauri which is a mere 4.2 light years away, you can see why our spiral in the universe is called the “Milky Way”.   How many stars can I actually see out here? One estimate I read was less than 0.000003%.  It’s beyond what my depth perception can fully conceive, but it does give context to the vastness of the sky.  And it’s beautiful.

Not to belabor the point, but I also like clouds, as they give the sky texture.  Cloudy days tend to get a bum rap.  On a clear day, I see blue, but clouds give me an appreciation of the depth of the sky; they give me perspective, something concrete by which I can gauge the rest of my immediate atmosphere, at least in part.

The point is perception.  And I apply it thus: my perception of what God is doing in my life is, let’s say for discussion sake, 5% (probably more like 0.5% or less, but anyway….) That leaves about 95% of my circumstances that I’m not aware of; that is, the things that are influencing my life, either from the past, in motion for the future, or even on my immediate timeline.  Like the earth moving through its orbit, one seemingly imperceptible (there’s that word again) change would have catastrophic consequences.  I may not notice (at first) but it would definitely effect my day.  Such considerations should give me humble pause.

God puts it this way:

 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (1)

When my life gets “cloudy” and dark, I need to remind myself that the difficulties can actually help me define what’s beyond, the love of God, the mercy of my Creator, and the hope that His cross has bought. 

“For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.” (2)

And we think we’re in charge….

• Isaiah 55:8-9New New Living Translation(NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
• Psalm 108:4 New Living Translation(NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.