“Star of wonder, star of night, Guide us to thy perfect light…” As we eagerly await Christmas, look up to the stars. Get lost in the wonder and pray to the One who created them. Each day in Advent, enjoy a reflection from a Saint Luke friend, as they too look up to the sky and ponder the names used in the Bible for Jesus. May their reflections be a gift to you this Christmas as we seek God together.
Today’s reflection is from Allen Benner-Smith. Allen is Saint Luke's Parish Administrator. He has been answering phones and typing announcements in the church office since Windows XP.
Lord of all
“Therefore God exalted him even more highly and gave him the name that is above every other name, so that at the name given to Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” - Philippians 2: 9-11
I still remember the first time I looked at the moon with binoculars. I was about 10 years old, standing on a dark bluff at a church camp on the shore of Lake Erie. Flabbergasted by how much detail I could see with even those small lenses and how BRIGHT the moon looked, I'd repeatedly take the binoculars away from my face, look up in disbelief, look through the binoculars, take them away - over and over again. Since I grew up during the space race of the 60s, I knew that I was seeing light reflected off an orbiting body some quarter million miles away, and that the nearest of those glittering stars is nearly forty TRILLION miles away.
The night sky is where I experience just a taste of infinity. The Psalmist wrote,
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are humans that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
That's not what goes through my mind, though. The infinite cosmos shows me that the Lord of all, the limitless power that loved the universe into being, holds ME as beloved. Holds YOU as beloved. Holds US as beloved - right down to the hairs on our heads. Jesus isn't only "out there" somewhere. He's here: comforting, guiding, forgiving, inspiring, loving - every minute of every day. We're never alone.
Lord of all, your touch sets the planets spinning and also calms my soul when it's frantic. Thank you for all the ways we are reminded of how big - and - how intimate is your love for us. Thank you that being Lord of All means "Lord of me", too. Give us faith to feel that love, hold on to your promises and abide in you all the days of our lives. Amen.