The Heavens Declare

Psalm 19:1 (King James Version)

 ¹The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.

A group of computer science students and I were returning from a computer and electronics show in Las Vegas. All the glitz and glamour, all the high pitched sales force had left us jaded and hungry. We stopped at a buffet in a casino en route home. We stood and watched dozens of gamblers pumping coins into one-armed bandits. Even with all the noise and ringing of the slot machines, we noticed that the gamblers looked numb. Their actions were mechanical—and hopeless.

Our bellies full, we got back into the three cars in which we were caravanning home. The student passengers lay back as best they could in the crowded car and tried to catch some sleep. Back on the freeway we joined a double line of vehicles cruising 80 miles per hour almost bumper to bumper on one of the nation’s busiest rural freeways. For an hour or more we drove through the pitch darkness of the desolate desert, blinded by our own headlights and that of hundreds of other vehicles. The students were silent, still bored by the vast array of electronics we’d seen.

Suddenly I put my turn signal on and pulled off of the freeway up one of those off ramps that end up on a gravel pad and a deserted cross road. The other two cars followed me. Pulling onto the gravel and turning off the lights I got out of the car. Several got out with me. “What’s wrong? Why’d you stop way out here?”

Silently I let them quiz me for a couple minutes, allowing our eyes to adjust to the darkness. Finally I said quietly, “Look up!” as I looked skyward. One by one they looked up to see what I was looking at. Then in voices hushed with awe, they expressed utter amazement.

We all stood there. The college students were talking excitedly now. It was obvious that what they were seeing impressed them far more than the millions of dollars worth of technology that they had been looking at all day. Most of these students had grown up in the city and had never seen the Milky Way before. I pointed out some of the familiar constellations, stars, and planets. Maybe ten thousand pinpoints of light shone back at us in that vast waste land.

“How do you know which is which?” they wondered out loud.

“They’re my friends!” I responded simply.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for declaring your glory and your love through your infinitely vast creation beyond the firmament.