Worship

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Bryce Canyon in southern Utah was awash in color as the sun slowly disappeared turning the bright blue sky into grayish dusk. A gentle chilling breeze wrapped around our shoulders causing a sudden shiver. My wife, Joyce, and I parked ourselves on a bench on the canyon’s ridge waiting for the show to begin.

We scanned the heavens above us eagerly waiting for the first star to burst through. First, there was one, then two or three, and finally, the entire sky twinkled showing the handiwork of our creator God. The Big Dipper, Orion, and other recognizable constellations thrilled us in their brilliance.

There was no tree line to interfere with the spectacle. There were no street lights, neon signs, or any form of light pollution to foil the incredible scene surrounding us. Even the moon was hiding. Nothing but stars shining in utter darkness closed in around us causing us to feel lost in wonder.

A sense of smallness and insignificance came over me accompanied with a sense of the greatness and power of Almighty God. How could anyone not see this and believe?

The Apostle Paul beheld the night sky and declared it as God’s witness to Himself. He wrote, “For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-- his eternal power and divine nature-- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20 NIV).

The drama above us on that June night was clearly a manifestation of God’s eternal power and his divine nature. How dare us as puny mankind to think we can explain the wonders of creation in that a Big Bang caused all of this! What more could anyone want for proof that God is? To see is to believe. To see and not believe is to be without an excuse. This universe including you and me are created by the hands of God.

As a shepherd three thousand years ago, David camped on the hillsides and beheld the night sky time after time. In the wonder of it all, he wrote the hymn of the night sky. “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8 NIV).

Yes, I felt small that night lost in the wonder of the night sky. Yet, the Lord knows me. He loves me. He sent his Son to die for me and save me from sin, death, and hell and to make me fit for an eternity in a heaven that only can be imagined compared to the heaven above me on that clear night.

Think of this. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is one of countless galaxies. The only stars that we can see are the stars in our Milky Way which contains over 200 billion stars. It would take 120 thousand light years to cross the Milky Way from end to end. A light year is 5,879,000,000,000 miles. Such vastness and creative power is more than my feeble mind can wrap itself around.

Two-thirds of the world’s population is blind to the wonder of God’s universe due to light pollution that hides the stars from our view. Who would have ever thought that stars were an endangered species? How many more are blinded to the light beaming from the cross because of the pollution from sin and this world's values?

Perhaps we need to turn the lights off tonight, go to a dark place, look up, worship, and become lost in the wonder of our Creator and Redeemer again.

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