Remembering the night sky

I was reading a National Geographic Magazine yesterday in the waiting room while waiting for Mom to be seen by the doctor. There was a story about saving energy and how some entire cities (Flagstaff, AZ is one) have enacted laws whereby they turn off all street lamps at a certain hour. They have noticed big savings in energy by doing this, but as a side benefit, they get spectacular night skies like the skies you only see when you are "out in nature".

It reminded me of all the campouts I went on when I was in the Boy Scouts. There were so many stars out that you could actually see all of the constellations at once without having to look very hard. Those of us who were going for our Astronomy merit badges would make sure we had a brand-new battery in our flashlights so we could aim the beams at the different stars that made up the constellations and amaze the younger guys with our knowledge.

You could even see some of the nebulae, or "clouds" around clusters of stars. And, once in a while, even a planet was visible to the naked eye. On particularly warm, clear nights we would beg the scoutmasters to let us "sleep under the stars". Shooting stars would occur about every 10 minutes and almost invariably someone would let out a sigh, or a gasp, or even a shout of "Oh, my God!" without realizing they were in fact praising the Creator for the view.

This reaction is natural. Anyone who has experienced a night sky like this knows what I'm talking about. Even the most scientific-minded individual must know instinctively that the universe didn't create itself. One can't look at this sight and not feel God's hand in all of it.

The most incredible thing about the sight is that it is the SAME night sky that has been viewed by Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, Noah from the Ark, Abraham on the mountain in the Land of Moriah, Jonah from the belly of the whale, and the wise men from the East (although in this case there was that one extra pesky star)!

They are the same stars that God told Abraham to count as a measure of the number of descendants he would father. Can you imagine that the number of people who have been born since the beginning of time probably does exceed the number of stars in the night sky? And Jesus sacrificed himself for every one of them and us. Absolutely mind-boggling!
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I caught up with Father Brandon yesterday before Mass. I thanked him for the nice "thank you" card he sent me in regards to the letter I sent to the school. I asked him if he knew whether Joey got the message or not, and he said the whole school got the message!--He used it as his homily at the kids Mass last week! He said it went over pretty well, and thanked me for writing it. Made me proud, and here I am trying to work on my humility.