A Starry Sigh

"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile."

                -Ralph Waldo Emerson from “Nature”

It was Sunday night when our car chugged along the highway, heading away from College Station and towards our home at Baylor. Engulfed by a blanket of stars, I found myself gradually drifting in and out of a sleepy slumber. Not even Hercules himself could alter my eyelids from their current course. With one last look at the night sky I slowly let out a long, deep sigh, and entered the state of mind when your logic collides with your imagination.

 Many believe that a picture says a thousand words, but I believe a sigh says it all. From a sigh you can gauge a person’s mood, their dopamine and serotonin levels, and their physical exhaustion. From a sigh you instantly know whether they are depressed, stressed, or a mess. From a sigh you can also see if they are relieved, have come to a conclusion worth the instant release of air, or have just sat down in their favorite sofa chair after a long day of work. For some a sigh can represent pain or anxiety; for others it can be just the thing that casts off their Atlas-like burdens.

 On this night I found myself sighing for reasons similar to the former. I sighed neither out of pain nor anxiety, but out of an overwhelming sorrow brought on by revelation. You see on this night, as the twinklings of the stars were slowly fading from my closing eyelids, I realized that we often neglect to acknowledge these “envoys of beauty”. Growing up in the era of electricity and electronics, it seems that we prefer the yellow glow of a lamp to the brilliant white shine of the moon and the stars. Many of us fail to even recognize their existence any more, and those that attempt to do so find their efforts thwarted by light pollution. Do you see the irony in that? We no longer can view the light of the stars from our back porch due to an overabundance of light.  I almost chuckle just thinking about this situation. Have we become so wrapped up in our comforts (yes electricity has brought us many comforts) that we have become hardened to what God initially created to soothe our weary minds?

For thousands of years people have used the stars to guide them, to comfort them, and illuminated their paths. Sailors and shepherds alike used stars to navigate their ships and flocks, respectively. David used stars to quell his fears when Saul sent thousands of men to pursue him. And everyone before the use of electricity relied on the glow of the stars and the moon to shed light in an otherwise dark world.

Ralph Waldo Emerson questioned in his famous “Nature” the effects our current culture has had on our perceptions of nature. If the stars only shone once in a thousand years, people would weep out of amazement. Talk about the true sublime. Halley’s Comet is visible from Earth only once in every 75 years and look at the effect it has on people. Once every 75 years is still recent enough to be viewed per generation and this event engrains a deep image of beauty onto those lucky enough to view it. Imagine if the stars only revealed their luster once in every thousand years. Those fortunate enough to witness this would have previously thought they were mere stories for children, myths, tall tales, and legends so to speak. They would be bragging about this to their neighbors who were sleeping for years. They would pass this story onto their children and their children’s children. To them, seeing the stars would be a life altering event. It would cause beauty to be defined and God to be reconsidered.

How far have we strayed from these perceptions?

How jaded have we become to God’s beautiful magnificence?

Speaking from my own experiences, I can personally admit that I am guilty of becoming hardened to God’s brilliance. I use to go days without acknowledging that Nature could be anything more than a pest, months ignoring the beauty that’s expressed through every blade of grass and tree leaf, and I would go years without ever acknowledging God’s hand in all of it. According to the opening chapters of the Bible, God created the Heavens and the Earth with just a mere breath. Through mere words God created the 343 quintillion gallons of water in the oceans, the 57 million square miles of land in the world, the 9 different planets in our galaxy, and the millions of Galaxies still waiting to be discovered. These entire things he created through the power of speech. What can your voice do? You see from the highest mountains to the deepest depths of the sea, God’s presence marks nature, and yet our world seems to ignore it. The reason I sighed on Sunday was because I realized that we take these signs- the wonders made for us to delight in and marvel at- for granted. We take God’s power for granted.  Would we notice if the stars failed to shine tonight as we sit indoors? Would the absence of the stars detract from the glow upon our faces caused by our computer screens?

So as I sit here and write this I encouraged you to enter a state of reflection and ponder over the last time you acknowledged the beauty of nature or the magnificence of God.

I challenge you to let out a starry sigh.