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When Stars Speak to Us

August 19, 2024


Years ago, I officiated a wedding at the Snow Bowl ski area near Flagstaff, Arizona. The Snow Bowl is near the top of Arizona's 12,633-foot-high San Francisco Peaks. After the wedding, my wife, Becky, and our son, Jon, left the building where the wedding was held to go home. As we looked to the northwest, we were shocked, even awed, by the number of stars in the dark sky. At that elevation, you see the stars as they are. I felt as if the universe surrounded me. Suddenly, I realized my 'smallness.' I was undone, wrecked by billions of stars, the Milky Way, and the shooting star that just flashed by.  

Every person could benefit from going to their own area's 'Snow Bowl.’ It brings us perspective and reality. Ascend a high mountain, look at all the stars on a clear, moonless night, and ask yourself, "How big am I?" If you want to be exotic about looking at billions of stars, go to The Aoraki National Park on the South Island of New Zealand. It was designated as an International Dark Sky Reserve in 2012, the first awarded 'gold' status (meaning there is no light pollution). I’ve been there, and believe me, the Milky Way will wake you up, not put you to sleep. 

‘Starry, starry’ nights speak to us, put us in our place, and remind us again of God’s greatness and what a miracle it is for us to be alive. Remember the song, “Starry, Starry Nights” by Don McLean? It’s about a famous painting most of you know. Vincent van Gogh was also a stargazer and was stunned yet impressed by the wonder of what he saw. Let’s learn about his painting and what he was trying to capture and communicate in painting this picture. 

The Starry Night painting is an oil on canvas by the Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence just before sunrise, with the addition of an idealized village. It has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941. It is regarded as among Van Gogh's finest works and is one of the most recognized paintings in the history of Western culture.

The painting is of a scene at night with eleven swirly stars and a bright yellow crescent moon. In the background are hills; in the middle ground is a moonlit town with a church with an elongated steeple; and in the foreground, there is the dark green silhouette of a cypress tree and houses. Researchers have determined Venus was visible at dawn in Provence in the spring of 1889 and was nearly as bright as possible. So, Venus is the brightest "star" in the painting, just to the viewer's right of the cypress tree.

Many historians' interpretations of this painting reflect what Meyer Shapiro and Sven Loevgren noted about the painting. Sven Loevgren calls The Starry Night "an infinitely expressive picture which symbolizes the final absorption of the artist by the cosmos" and "gives a never-to-be-forgotten sensation of standing on the threshold of eternity." Art historian Lauren Soth also finds a symbolist subtext in The Starry Night, saying the painting is a "traditional religious subject in disguise" and a "sublimated image of [Van Gogh's] deepest religious feelings."

There is another person in the Bible who was a stargazer. His name was David. Like Vincent van Gogh, he experienced an epiphany on his ‘starry, starry night’ on the hills of Israel years ago. It undid and wrecked him, too, in a significant way. He expresses this perfectly in Psalm 8. "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou has ordained; What is man, that Thou does remember Him, and the son of Man that Thou takes care of him?" Of course, when he writes this, David is thinking about both men and women, or all human beings.  

In other words, David was writing, “God, you are so big, and I am so small; why would you even think of me or take care of me?” Then David realizes something. He goes on to write, “Yet Thou hast made him (us) a little lower than God, and dost crown man (us) with glory and majesty.” 

In other words, if God is a perfect ten, humankind is an eight or a nine. We humans are nearer to God than any other creation. God's not mad at us. God's mad about us. History consistently reveals a high view of God leads to a high view of human beings.

Conversely, a low image of God leads to a low view of humans. God wouldn’t make a ‘worm’ to worship Him. That kind of worship would be worthless. God made a worthy creation, made in God's image, to worship Him. Seeing those stars reminds us that we lack little of God but are not God.

You see, God used and still uses nature to reveal that there is one true God, the creator and originator of all things, who cares for you. You're God's workmanship, and God doesn't make junk.   

Why not go out on a starry night and let God “display His splendor above the heavens” to you?  


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Ed Delph is a leader in church-community connections.
Visit Ed Delph's website at www.nationstrategy.com