Hey, friends, the first day of spring is just a couple of days away! Can you believe it?
Hi! This is Joni Eareckson Tada for Joni and Friends and you know, spring is just around the corner. Wow! Unbelievable. If you spend any time with me at all, you knowhow much I enjoy the night sky when you can really see the stars. And what with spring arriving, there are all sorts of new constellations up there at night arriving on the horizon, and there’s good reason to go stargazing. Frankly, I’m inspired by the prophet Isaiah who, as he probably rested back on a rock under a starry night sky in springtime, was able to look up and be awestruck by what he saw. He even tells us in Isaiah 40:26 to “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them [that is, the stars] is missing.” And then in the next verse Isaiah adds, “Why do you… complain, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God.’” Why complain? Now, I think that’s curious for Isaiah to say on the heels of telling us to look at the starry night sky… it’s like he’s making a connection between the glory of the heavens above… and, hey, looking at that, looking up there, you have no reason to complain.
Now, when the people of Isaiah’s day followed his advice and actually looked at the heavens, you have to wonder what they thought. Even when New Testament Christians read this verse, or even when the early Church fathers did such as Tyndale or Wycliffe read it, what did they think when they lifted their yes and looked to the heavens? Surely they were overwhelmed to see springtime constellations. And when they stopped to consider – I mean really consider not only the beauty, but the incredible number of those stars, they no doubt did what Isaiah told them to do… they bit their tongues from complaining; how dare they complain after realizing that God named all those many thousands of stars within their sight. They may have been living hundreds of years before the telescope was invented, but still, they had to be awestruck at the number of stars they were able to see just with the naked eye.
But that was then! Today – oh my – it is a whole different story when you look up into the night sky. Because Galileo’s old telescope has given way to powerful, computer-enhanced telescopic images of not thousands… but many more – not just millions – billions and billions of stars, more than Isaiah ever even dreamed of… galaxies, even! Augustine and Tyndale and Wycliffe couldn’t even begin to imagine what we now take for granted every time we see colorful images from the Hubble space telescope; so many stars, so many galaxies that they are far beyond counting. Yet God has looked at each one, rubbed his chin, and examined the distinctiveness of each star, and has given it a name that fits; trillions upon trillions of stars, each with a special name.
And here’s the point Isaiah was making: If God cares about the names of each star, why should we complain, thinking that our problems are hidden from him, or that he has no regard for our situation. You are far more precious to him than a nova, or even a supernova. He has made you co-heir with the Creator and Name-Giver of the stars. Wow! You are always in God’s sight. That’s good enough reason never to complain.
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JONI AND FRIENDS
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