The Stars In The Sky

Genesis 15 - 17

There is just so much good stuff in these 3 chapters:  the covenant between God and Abram (exalted father) or Abraham (father of many) the name God gives Abraham when he confirms his covenant with him.  We see again the beginnings of the first-born son being placed last.  God tells Hagar that the child she bears for Abram will live in hostility toward all his brothers.  Yet, God tells Abraham that he will establish an everlasting covenant with his second son, the one that Sarai (whose name God changes to Sarah) will bear for him.  This covenant that God makes with Abraham and promises to establish in Sarah's son is to be father of many nations - more offspring than he can count.  Just as their are more stars in the sky than he can count, so shall his offspring be. 

Not long ago, I had occasion to be reminded of Abraham and the covenant God made with him when God told him to look up at the heavens and count the stars.  We were driving around the northern edge of Lake Michigan late at night.  The water sparkled as the moon shone on the slightly rippling water.  It was one of those nights when the sky looked black against the brilliance of the stars.  There were so many bright shining lights in the sky you wouldn't even consider counting them.  And I suddenly had this over-powering realization that these were the same stars that Abraham beheld, the same stars that David may have gazed at as he kept watch over the flock in the fields, the same stars that lit the night for Jesus as he went out alone to pray. 

Time sort of collapsed in on me for a few moments as I realized a closeness with the generations before us that I had never realized before.  These are the same stars, the same moon that lit the night skies for Abraham, for Jesus, for the many generations before us, so many generations that we cannot count them.  This is the same earth that they walked upon.  How very precious the land, the whole of creation, became to me in that moment.  I felt the desire to touch the ground, to lay my hand upon it - to bless and pray for the land which God made and gave to us to walk upon, to live upon, to care for.  I also was deeply aware of how many of our brothers and sisters, how many of God's children live in places, where the city lights are so bright that they cannot look up and behold the stars.  The children cannot run and play and roll around in the grass, they cannot touch the land for concrete and asphalt have entombed the land.

I look to the stars and thank God that he has allowed me to live in a place where I can see them.  In the wilderness, I can see the stars and even a rainbow every now and then and remember the covenants he made with his people.  I can look at the stars and I am reminded of the line from the favored hymn "Away in a Manger" (Author Unknown) "the stars in the sky looked down where he lay."  These are the same stars that look down where you lay.   

May God grant that we should have a better understanding of our relationship with his whole creation, with the generations before us and the generations to come.