Afterthought

One of the things I have loved about camping is being able to see so many stars every night.

There is no light pollution in the middle of the campsite and the sky seems to stretch out endlessly.

I love looking up at the sky and waiting as my eyes adjust and more stars appear one by one by one. Until the whole sky is littered with silver sequins and I realise just how small I am and how huge God is.

And what I can see doesn't even begin to encompass all of God's creation. It doesn't even begin to reflect the hugeness of the Creator.

In the creation story in Genesis, it describes how God created the sun, the moon and the stars:

"Then God said, 'Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.' And that is what happened. God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars."

[Genesis 1:14-16 NLT]

I love the last sentence. Five words. It is almost an afterthought, a post-script. No hype. No exaggeration. No embellishment.

He also made the stars.

God doesn't need our exaggeration or embellishment. We don't have to hype Him up. He is awesome. Without our help.

Sometimes, by exaggerating what God is like in human terms, we actually distort our view of Him. We think we have understood Him better but, really, we have made Him into something we can contain and control and comprehend.

But that is not who or what God is. He is incomprehensible. And we need only look at the stars to be reminded of His greatness and His magnitude.