Star Light Star Bright; Genesis 1:16-19

^"16God made two great lights-the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹And there was evening, and there was morning-the fourth day." The other night I sat around a bonfire in the cool of the evening, wrapped in a blanket, listening to the crackle of the fire and feeling the breeze against my skin. The skies became a bit brighter and I realized that the moon was trying to peak through the clouds casting shadows in and out of the flames. But as I gazed at the moon through the tree in front of me, Roger points to another bright spot behind me. It is the second brightest object you can find in the sky at night, it was the planet Venus. Did you know that some refer to Venus as the morning star? It's the only planet to rotate around the sun clockwise and has the slowest rotation around the earth. It's portrayed in such famous paintings as Vincent Van Gogh's 1889 painting, "The Starry Night". I actually have this painting hanging in my bedroom as it's one of my favorites. While sitting in my yard around the fire, I was fascinated by how big and bright Venus appeared even though it was so very far away. It was not lost on me, either, that God set our solar systems in order and has purpose and plan for all things to sustain us here on earth. He gave us light on the 4th day and he saw it was good! Can you imagine if he had left us in a world with only darkness? To never feel the sun on your face, or the warmth from it's embrace on our lands? He could have just stopped at the sun and the moon and that would have been sufficient, but he went one step further and gave us planets, stars and constellations beyond our own galaxies to marvel over. Why? Why would the creator of light choose to give us more than what we need? Have you ever thought about nature and why God gave us so many flowers, trees, plants, animals, birds, fish, etc? Have you ever thought about how special you are to him? Remember he created us too and tells us that he knitted us together in our mother's womb. We were created to be like him so he gave us free will, emotions and intelligence to be companions to him and rule over the earth. Keeping that in perspective, look around today, the world has flipped upside down from another creation, a virus, one without a cure and one on a mission to cause fear and devastation. In the matter of months our nation has gone from prosperous to unemployed, from freedom to lockdown, from having everything at our fingertips to waiting for the shelves to be stocked, and from hugging and being hugged to wearing masks, gloves and keeping a distance from one another. Everything that God gave us to delight us, the light that he gifted us with, this virus has taken and it has placed a great darkness over our nation. Oh but there is coming a time, when the morning star, our "Morning Star" will bring back the light into our lives and shine ever so much brighter. Revelations 22:16 says this, "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright and morning star." This is a time for the church to remember that it is in Christ Jesus that we are rooted and it is he that shines brighter than Venus, the morning star that the morning star created. It is Jesus that will again create light in the darkness and bring healing to our nation. We can choose to look at this as a time of despair, meaning a complete absence of hope or we can choose to rest in that there will be joy in the morning, when the daystar rises in the east and restores health to our nation, to our world. We will mourn those that we will have lost but we will help our brothers and sisters find peace again. We will look to the light that was created on the fourth day and know that the light will always drown out the darkness whenever we call upon the bright and morning star, Jesus, to save us. Will you choose to live in the light of Christ today or in the darkness of the one who comes to steal, kill and destroy? Will you choose to not fear but to have hope that the glorious Morning Star will rise again and heal our nation? What do you choose this day? Under His Wings, Heather