Matthew 2:1–2, 7–10 (see also study on The Zoroastrians, p. 84)
Stars have a beautiful place in the Scriptures. The book of Job speaks of the singing of the stars on the day of creation, and the book of Psalms offers a picture of intimate relationship between the stars and their creator, who ordains the movements of their dance and knows them all by name.
In the book of Genesis comes that magical moment when God takes Abram outside into the desert and bids him look up at the stars. What he saw was not quite the same as we see in our light-polluted cities. If you can get away from the streetlights, car headlights, and house security lights, the night sky is ablaze with myriad stars beyond counting. “So shall your offspring be,” God said.
As the years went by, the time came for Jesus to be born – one of those stars of Abram’s descent. In the Bible he is sometimes called the Morning Star (i.e. the sun), and John the Baptist’s father Zechariah prophesies, regarding the birth of Jesus, of “the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace” (Luke 1:78–79).
Can you remember times when you have been out in the country, where you could see the stars with less light pollution? What was it like?
Can you think of a friend who has been to you like a star in a dark night?
They call celebrities “stars”. Who are the “stars” of your life, the ones you look up to?
We thank you, O God, for frosty nights and starry heavens. Thank you for the beauty and majesty of the wide sky above us, lifting our hearts, moving our souls, speaking to us of wonder and glory. Thank you for the clear shining of the Evening Star as night comes down, and the Morning Star, the sun that rises in such splendour, reminding us of Jesus. The stars are too many for us to count, dear Lord, but you know every one of them by name. How great is our God, how great is our God! In all times of our darkness, whenever our life passes through a night-time, remind us, God of our journeys, to look up at the stars. For we ask it in Jesus’ name; Amen.