“He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.”
Psalm 147:4 NIV
One star peeked through the clouds as I looked up from my front porch. Its light lasted about ten seconds before being covered by dark blue clouds, a remnant of the evening’s earlier storm. Ten seconds, yet God created the encounter for me in His infinite wonder-filled love. He knows that I often end my day star gazing into the night sky.
Even more impressive is that the star’s light began its journey to my front porch years earlier, as little as four light-years or millions of light-years. Let me explain.
Light travels 186,000 miles per second when moving through the vacuum of space. The distance between stars is so vast that light from Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our solar system, still takes over four light-years to reach the Earth. For distant stars in the Andromeda galaxy, it takes 2.5 million light-years for their lights to reach the Earth. Light from the most distant stars has been traveling since just after the universe’s creation.
Yet this star appeared for ten seconds through a break in the storm clouds at the very moment I stepped on to my front porch. All of which makes my ten-second encounter with that star a delightful window of wonder crafted by our Heavenly Father.
Hard to believe? It is if our relationship with God is more religious than relational. Personalized celestial encounters are tough to believe if we don’t believe God wants to be intimately involved in our everyday lives.
But that’s what intimate friends do; knowing who we are and what we like, friends go out of their way to make time to talk, choose gifts, or plan an event, especially for you. God is that kind of friend and yet so much more. He made this crystal clear in John 15:15, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
Did you catch that? “everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you,” meaning that it has been God’s desire from the beginning that we become intimate friends. Intimate friends who initiate memorable moments that last a lifetime, like a brilliant star in a stormy sky perfectly timed uniquely for me.
Is that the relationship you have with your Heavenly Father? It can be, He’s here, and He hears your every thought as only an intimate Friend can. Begin by talking with Him as you would a good friend. Let Him teach you how to listen, learn, live, and love as His intimate friend.
May I leave you with His promise; “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” Luke 11:9-10 NLT
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