Hi, I'm Joni Eareckson Tada and here’s a hymn I know you can sing with me…
Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee
Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.
Great is thy faithfulness, Great is thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness Lord unto me.
When I sing about God's faithfulness, I always think of the heavens, the constellations. Because as sure as it is now September, you can look up into the night sky and see the constellations shifting, escorting out summer and ushering in autumn, they are. Say goodbye to the Big Dipper, Ursa Major, Polaris, and Cassiopeia (well, Cassiopeia will still be around in autumn) along with Andromeda, Aries, and Taurus... each of them faithfully marking the change of seasons. Truly, the heavens declare the glory of God! And what do they declare? His faithfulness. Hardly a night goes by lately when I don’t look up into the blanket of stars and whisper, “Lord, thank you for such a beautiful witness as these stars.” Just think of it...
Our solar system, as immense as it is, is just one small speck in the Milky Way galaxy. How small? Let’s say the Milky Way were the size of North America… you got that? Using that scale, our sun and its planets would fit into a little tiny coffee cup somewhere in a little corner of Washington State. What’s more amazing is that the Milky Way (our home galaxy) is just an average galaxy among billions and billions of others far bigger.
The number of stars is incomprehensible. Astronomers are now convinced that there are more stars in the universe than there are (get this) grains of sand on the beaches of the world. Think of that! All the sand on the beaches from Florida to New York... both coasts of Africa... the beaches of western Australia – that’s a lot of sand! There are more stars in the universe than all those grains of sand. And remember, this doesn’t mean that Earth is a grain of sand; no, our sun -- the star -- would be the grain of sand. This makes Earth infinitesimally, teeny tiny small! And on this eensy speck of earth, out of the billions of people, the Lord of the universe came to earth to save you.
Glory, glory, glory! Truly, like it says in Psalm 19, “The heavens declare his glory as nothing else." No other Bible verse alludes to other parts of God’s creation… no, no. The seas don’t declare his glory and neither do the mountains or the waves. Only the heavens, it says in the word of God. Little wonder the psalmist said, “When I look up into the night skies and see the work of your fingers I cannot understand how you can bother with mere man. " So, please, before the constellations disappear into a new season, go outside tonight, look at the stars, and thank Him, bless Him for your salvation.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 91376
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