I'll Take the Star Any Day

Driving north for an hour Saturday night, I passed hordes of people comfy in their lawn chairs on parkways in each town I passed through. It was just after 9 p.m., almost time for the Fourth of July fireworks to begin. I sensed eager anticipation as kids waved glow-wands and small flags. A few minutes later, fireworks began. I could see them in the open spaces off in the distance. To my right, first a red chrysanthemum, then a green one, blossomed in the sky, then dissipated into falling ash. To my left, a white rocket shot up into a boom of smoke. Also to my left was one star in the darkening blue expanse. I thought, God, certainly you can be showier than that. God-made stuff is always more majestic than man-made stuff. In the next open land I drove through, a beautiful white daisy grew up from the eastern horizon, then died. A white weeping willow appeared on the western horizon, then disappeared. The one star was still there. This scenario repeated the whole drive. By the time I got home, I was much more awed by the constancy of that one unwavering star than with all the shooting stars that flashed for a moment. Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the the skies. Psalm 36:5