Twinkle, Twinkle

And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”  Genesis 15:5

Star light, star bright, 

First star I see tonight,

I wish I may, I wish I might,

Have this wish I wish tonight.  --Anonymous

I can remember laying on my back gazing up at the stars from our tent while camping as a kid while my sister taught me that poem.  Transfixed on the stars and the wonder of all God created beyond the crickets and cicadas singing in majestic surround-sound orchestra about me, I could only imagine how Abraham must have felt that night.

It was a night like any other night, but not.  God brought Abraham outside the tent and told him to look toward heaven and count the stars--if he could.  And then . . . the promise.  The promise was that his offspring would be like the stars.  And though Abraham had no children at all, he believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.  Scripture tells us, "it was counted to him as righteousness" three different times.  If you know Abraham's story, you know that God's promise to him was fulfilled.  

Though he never saw it, he saw it.

Do you know what I mean?

Abraham didn't see the promise with his physical eyes, but he saw it with his spiritual eyes.  And so, he followed God and His direction, though others couldn't see where Abraham was going, he knew he was following God's leading.

I wonder if you are anything like Abraham.

What I mean is, has God placed a dream or a promise within your heart?  Do you see it without physically seeing it?

I think God does that a lot.  I think He puts promises in our heart that beg us to exercise faith because faith is what pleases Him.  Believing Him pleases Him.  Not only that, but it blesses us beyond our wildest imagination, too.

Do you believe?

After we lost our tree in the backyard, I decided to return to that once beloved past-time of star-gazing.  I noticed one star shining and twinkling brighter than any other star in the sky, and God spoke to my heart.  He reminded me that what we see with our physical eyes isn't the same as what is seen spiritually.

He reminded me, too, of Daniel 12:3, which says, "And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever."  

That's very twinkly.  I want to be twinkly like that.  I want to be one of the people that Daniel was talking about and twinkle forever, turning many to righteousness.  

It was God's righteousness twinkling magnificently above and all around me that night while camping as a kid, and it's the same righteousness I see in this night's sky.

Twinkle, twinkle,

Brightest Star

How I love

The way You are

Up above and

Down below

You will guide

The way I go

Twinkle, twinkle

Greatest Star

I think I see

Right where You are.

Goodnight, Runners.