“When I consider Thy Heavens…” - Ps. 8:3

I've always been a bit of a science nerd, and one area that has always sparked my attention is Astronomy. For that reason, from my earliest childhood days, I've always been a mesmerized stargazer. As a matter of fact I can remember wanting and receiving a telescope for Christmas. My telescope was a childhood treasure. I would spend hours at night pointing that fairly crude instrument at the small flickering lights in the sky and turning the little focal knob by the eye-piece working to achieve that exact focus that made the fuzzy flickering crystal clear. I can vividly remember when on one night (by sheer luck) I pointed my silver, lens-filled tube at a bright object in the night sky and was thrown into total amazement when I saw Saturn and its rings come into focus. I ran into the house hollering at my parents and siblings imploring them to came and see this miraculous sight in my telescope. I'm not entirely sure that they were as enthralled as I was.

It's this kind of otherworldly curiosity that led me out to the deck on my pond this past Monday night at about 11:30 pm with beach chair, binoculars, bug spay, and blanket in tow, in hopes that I might catch a show from the new Tau Herculids meteor shower. The night was perfect: the temperature was great; there was no moon to pollute the night sky with light; no bugs were harassing me; no neighbors had their outside lights on; the beach chair was comfortable and leaned way back, just as I had hoped; and the night sky was full of stars. It was glorious, truly. I almost got a little teary when some old memories came to mind. When my children were young, and a meteor shower was coming, I could coax them to join me outside in the wee hours of the morning to watch the show. We would gather up some blankets and go lie on the trampoline, which made for a perfect bed for sky viewing. This past Monday night I returned for a bit to that starlit trampoline, cuddled with my children, watching God put on a heavenly lightshow, a treasure indeed.

I'm not sure; perhaps it is just me and others like me, but I believe there are certain things in this world that have the power to make us - well - ponder: the mesmerizing flicker of an open crackling bonfire in an otherwise dark night, a well-written song or poem that stirs you and takes you to another place, the miraculous sight of a new-born child taking its first independent breath. Stargazing, on a dark night when there is nothing else to catch our eye's attention, is most assuredly one of those things. Even the romantic King David was moved by this mysterious

power. Listen to David's profound ponderings:

“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. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet” (Ps. 8:3-6).

When David pondered the vastness and majesty of the night sky it overwhelmed him. It left him wondering how God could care for such seemingly insignificant specks as humans. But as vast and awesome as the universe is, David also rightly realized how amazingly significant we humans are. David understood the Imago Dei; the truth that we are amazingly significant, not because of anything we have done, but rather because God fashioned us in His own image. David begins the Psalm mesmerized by the vastness of the universe, but then closes it by describing our unique and special place in it. May I leave you with a few lessons from the Psalm:

1. Ownership - “The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof….” As you read this article, ponder this truth. Nothing that you currently see, hear, or feel did you create. Every atom and subatomic particle in this universe was CREATED by God. Sure, we arrange the atoms at times to shape things as we like or need them: this is part of what it means to be made in God's image. We share his creativity. However, we created nothing that we use.

2. Stewardship - The text says God made him (Mankind) the ruler over the works of His own hands. We don't own it; we steward it for Him.

3. Sonship/daughtership - The point here is simple. Regardless of how vast this universe is, there is nothing in it more special than you. Only you (and all humans) carry within you the Imago

Dei. Regardless of what others think, actually regardless of what you think, you are a part of God's very finest work; you are indeed very, very special.