Oh that brilliant star

What brilliant staging and incredible timing it was that a star was chosen to shine brightly over Bethlehem. And a few years back, the “Bethlehem Star” was shining for the first time in 800 years.

Obviously, when God sends a birth announcement for His only son, you can’t find a word to describe the magnificence. This year, although we won’t see the Bethlehem star, there is another bright sign in the heavens.

According to Chanel Vargas of Popsugar, “Unfortunately, we won’t see it (the Bethlehem star) again in this year but Dec. 21, (aka the December solstice), Jupiter and Saturn aligned so closely in the night sky that they almost appeared to collide from our vantage point here on Earth, creating a radiant point of light.

“‘You’d have to go all the way back to just before dawn March 4, 1226, to see a closer alignment between these objects visible in the night sky.’

“Alignments between these two planets are rather rare, occurring once every 20 years or so, but this conjunction is exceptionally rare because of how close the planets will appear to be to one another,” said Patrick Hartigan, an astronomer at Rice University, according to Forbes. “You’d have to go all the way back to just before dawn March 4, 1226, to see a closer alignment between these objects visible in the night sky.”

I think that many messages could be preached on Christmas, and believe me when I tell you, I have heard some pretty spectacular teachings surrounding the Christmas story. Two years ago, I had read an account of the swaddling clothes being made of sheepskin for its warmth and its softness.

Nobody saved a piece of it nor recorded the description in script, so common sense and history may be a pretty good teacher. If it was true, I thought how precious it was that Christ donned the garments that were first given to Adam and Eve – covering the sin and became a symbol for grace and forgiveness. He put on the garments of mercy. How apropos that our Savior’s first covering would be lamb.

This year, though, I have thought about that star and about the message. How God sends the solution before the problem arises. He created the animals before he created man and thus the skins before the sins. He created healing before the sickness. And then, there’s the star which was created long before the birth of Christ.

We know this because we have discovered that light takes several hundred and sometimes thousands of years to travel to earth. And isn’t it amazing that the light arrived right on time from a star that was light years away. Perhaps it was a star 400 years away and we can speculate as to the silent period between the testaments.

Perhaps it was a star that was created before God created the earth itself or before He created the foundations thereof. One thing is sure. He had to create it, and calculate exactly how many years it would be, before it would shine on the very night of Christ’s birth. In that hemisphere. After that sunset and before the next sunrise.

God knew He was going to have to send His son. In preparation He made a star. The birth star that would be even as His son, Jesus who is called the “bright and morning star.” And just as He created Jesus, He created each one of us. But before we had a cell of our being established, He had already fashioned healing for the illnesses, blood for the sins, peace for the stresses of this life, and solutions for the problems. And hopefully a recovery from the events of the world that has left scars upon us these past few years.

When I sing the carols this Christmas, I will be facing some pretty steep hills to climb. I will remember as I lay my head down on the pillow on Christmas Eve and gaze up through my window at the innumerable number of stars that my star is out there. And it makes me wonder which star’s light will finally reach me to proclaim that my solution has birthed. Can you see what I see?

And God will get all the glory, I will have peace in the midst of the adversity and His favor will be upon me.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.” – Luke 2:14

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a starry night.