Night Sky

 

 Devotions for November 20, 2020

 

Prayer

O God of darkness and light, I thank you for being with us at all times. You are the Creator of all things and all time. Yet, you are outside of time and beyond our floundering and flapping about in our mortality. O infinite One, help us in our dizzying and fixed reality. Anchor us, we pray into your calm and peace. You are in dark places and you know the depths of the deep. Guide us in this specific time with our very current and real concerns… Be with all who are feeling lost and unsure. Strengthen all who are on your path of timely following. In Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen.

Revelation 22:1-9

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

 

And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true, for the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.” “See, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.” I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me; but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your comrades the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God!”

 

Reflection

There was a story this morning on the radio about the science of studying the darkness of space. They came to an interesting conclusion about how dark the darkest place actually is. What do you make of the mystery of darkness?

I am not a night owl. My family teases me about my lack of ability to stay awake. I can identify with the disciples that are caught falling asleep repeatedly. Night is for sleeping. Unless you are one the many tough people that are night nurses or overnight shift workers. Some bodies get used to being up at certain times and can train themselves to work effectively through the darkness. They provide vital action and watchfulness for which we all depend and are grateful (to them and God for them)!

I am also thinking about all this spiritually. For centuries the church has pointed to texts like today as a revelation into heaven, and as a result there are misinterpretations about darkness and color. God created night and kept the waters of the abyss. Long before flashlights, it made sense to be afraid of what you cannot see or the times when thieves or predators would attack your animals. Now, though, we can read this text and look up at the night sky marveling about how “the darkness and the light are both in You O God” (Psalm 139.12). All shades of darkness and blackness are indeed beautiful--sky and skin, creation and creature. We are all known to God and part of the beauty.