The Heavens Declare

Shooting star -Bing.com

The night skies in Arizona are amazing! The Milky Way during the winter months is really milky and the massive roadway of stars sparkles in the cold air. It's easy to get lost in the beauty of that declaration of God's power. Often, meteorite showers travel through, spraying trails of stardust, and lone shooting stars are not uncommon. Of course the day skies are just as spectacular. Double rainbows that stretch between mountain ranges, thunderclouds piling up over the Huachucas with lightning slashing through the air to the ground.


The advantage of the West is the absence of those beautiful, huge trees that block much of the sky Back East. Unobstructed views and dark nights are a real advantage to taking in the sights. This past week while standing on the patio enjoying the twilight in the western sky, I noticed a triangle of what looked like three stars. It was something I'd never seen before and wondered if I'd been missing it every evening. When the perfect triangle appeared again against the dark red of the last glow of the sunset on Monday evening, my trusty husband immediately looked it up on his Ipad. Sure enough, it was one of those amazing sky events with three planets visible to the naked eye for just a few days in the early evening. Mercury was the top of the triangle, Jupiter was the bottom left, and Venus the bottom right of the three sides. The link below will give you an idea of what we saw.  My little camera was inadequate to capture the patio view, but there is a good photo at this link.

http://earthsky.org/tonight/planetary-trio-mercury-venus-jupiter-at-dusk-may-27

Those beautiful sky gifts given by the Creator lead me back to the Scriptures that define what that part of creation is all about. King David wrote in Psalm 19,

Nebula - UW Madison

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.  They have no speech; they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the world; their words to the ends of the earth."

They are also a reminder of the great God who not only created everything, but continues to sustain it in such an orderly fashion. Nothing is random or out of His control. He makes that clear when He questions Job (Job 38:31-33) about the constellations that we still enjoy.

"Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades? Can you loosen Orion's belt? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God's  dominion over the earth?"

The prophet Isaiah had this to say:

"Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing." Isaiah 40:26.

The triangle in the sky was no accident or random positioning of planets. It was all planned and executed by the One who made heaven and earth. I thoroughly enjoyed His work. Take a look at the night sky this week. What a display! What a Creator!