Pastor's Note

LIGHTS
May 20th, 2007

I drove out in the country to see someone. It was night when our visit ended. As I started to leave, I walked to my car. The host apologized that the outside light was not working. I told him not to worry.
In the darkness, I happened to look up at the sky. The stars shone brilliantly. I stood by the car, reluctant to cut the meditation short.
Stars shine brightly every night. Of course, sometimes cloud cover prevents us from seeing them. More commonly, what precludes our view of the stars are other lights. There are many of them these days: security lights, street lights, advertising lights, and even car lights. All these other, lesser lights prevent us from viewing these spectacular nightly displays.
I am not against the use of ground lights. Sadly, we need lights for protection and safety purposes. At the same time, I feel bad that many people are missing some great views of the night sky. And in not seeing the vastness of the God-made world, they are failing to discover the grandeur of God’s love and graciousness to us.
Those who read my weekly notes or my mid-week meditations already know that I often find God through nature. I believe that can be true for everyone. First, however, people must be able to find nature and see all its wonders.
Maybe as warmer days come, there will be time for you and your family to venture away from human-made lights, so you can simply meditate on the awesomeness of God revealed in the night sky.