Daily Lenten Devotion for 3/21

“God made the two great lights – the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night – and the stars.” – Gen. 1:16

As I was walking home from a meeting at the church last night, I looked up into the clear night sky to see hundreds of stars. It’s been several years since I’ve lived in an area where star-gazing is possible, so I’ve come to appreciate the presence of stars anytime there’s a clear night.

What I love about stars is how little they seem to us because of how far away from us they are. It reminds me that as big as we often think we are as humans, we too are just a small part of a vast universe which we are still just in the early stages of understanding. I am continually awed by the wideness of the universe, just as I am awed by the wideness of God’s mercy on “small things” like us.

This verse in the first creation account seems funny to me. The stars, which I love gazing at, sound like an afterthought. They are extra sprinkles on our ice cream, an extra sweater thrown into the suitcase, or a last minute invitation to someone on the “B” list of your wedding guest list. These wonderful things that I know hardly anything about, that seem so amazing to me, are merely an afterthought.

I am in awe today as I consider how little I am in comparison to the whole cosmos. I am in awe of something that seems so little and so insignificant, yet is still in many ways a mystery to us. I am in awe of God our creator, who makes brilliantly beautiful afterthoughts.