There’s a permanent kink in my neck from looking up at the sky, especially at the stars and the clouds. I love looking at the heavens both day and night; they are ever changing, and I find them fascinating. The dark skies in the Western part of the country where I live are alive with glowing sunset colors and the stars make their nightly appearance just like a Broadway show opening with twinkling lights by the millions.

Often I think that I missed my calling in life—I was meant to be a weather person. Actually, my mother was a weatherman (well, that’s what they called them in those days) during World War II. She worked in the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon where the east wind has blown for centuries and where the right moisture, temperatures, and wind can create a sheen of ice in just a couple of hours. We kids loved it because it meant we could get out of school on pretty short notice if the weather conditions were just right.

Sometimes I will still call her as ask her if she can see the same bank of clouds at her house as I see at mine and to learn from her what type of clouds are above us. She can always tell me what type of cloud and most of the time, they are a mix. Mom, at 80, knows all the old weather sayings such as, "Red at night, sailors delight, red in the morning, sailors take warning," and many more.

My mom and dad live further out in the country away from city lights, so the stars at night are much more brilliant, numerous, and so much easier to spot the constellations. Spotting the summertime shooting stars is a favorite past time. Even now it is still fun to go out to Mom and Dad’s, sit on the porch and look at the stars hovering in the darkness carpeting the sky in the ultimate CAD design.

One day while I was reading the scripture, Isaiah 40:26 made me gasp with the realization that thousands of years ago the prophet realized the power and strength of God and wrote of the stars. Isaiah asks the same question as we do now, "Who created everything you see?" I am sure he could not have even begun to dream of all that exists now, but he was completely in awe of the power of God.

Then Isaiah describes how the Lord gives a divine cue to each star at night—each and every night—and one by one they arrive at their designated time and place in the sky. They sparkle and dance in the best show available for man until they answer their early morning curtain call as the new day begins. God has never needed, nor will He ever need, a program for the show or cue cards to remember who they are or where they belong. His Word tells us that "He gives each one of them a name."

Think about that. Each star has a name. Do you think God throws back His head and laughs at us for naming the few stars we see when He has created universes? He must simply be so amused by our miniscule efforts to pretend we have some knowledge of the heavens. When He is the creator of all!

Psalm 33:6 says that, "By the breath of His mouth all the stars were created. Another version says, "He breathed the word and all the stars popped out!" Can you even imagine it? They popped (burst, exploded) out!

David the shepherd boy, in the fields watching his flocks, surely had time to search the heavens. The Psalms say, He filled the sky with light…the sun to watch over the day…the moon and stars as guardians of the night."

Isaiah further says, "His power and strength are great," as if to remind us and himself that Yahweh is the Mighty God. We cannot forget His power yet we cannot begin to understand His ability to be the Creator of all. Finally, Isaiah tells us, "So none of the stars is missing." Not a few, not just one or two, Isaiah tells us not one of them.

Psalm 8:3 says (and I love this!), "I look up at Your macro-skies, dark and enormous, Your handmade sky-jewelry, moon and stars mounted in their settings. Think of the enormous care the jeweler takes in mounting a jewel into its setting. I remember seeing the mold that the jeweler cast when he was creating my wedding ring. We went to look at it and I had to try it on. It was an amazing experience. But God didn’t need a mold to cast the moon and stars in their settings. He knew right where to put them for them to appear at their best and brightest.

God assures that each one of them is in the exact place where He assigned it to be, the spot where it belongs. Stars twinkle in the skies, and it is because of God’s strength and might that He placed them there, named them, and knows each of them. So how much more do you think He knows you, His Creation? Has He placed you here? In this exact moment? In this time? In this place? He knows your name, the number of hairs on your head, and the words on your tongue before you ever speak them.

Do you think He spends every moment disappointed in you? Do you think He looks over your life and sees only the bad you have done? Psalm 8 continues, "Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, why do You bother with us? Why take a second look our way?" God’s Word tells us why: It is because He loves us so deeply that He sent His only Son to die for us. It is why Jesus Christ was raised again on the third day and continues to live in at the right hand of His Father in Heaven and lovingly resides in our hearts.

It is because in every detail of His creation and in His every provision for us, that we see His magnificent love. The words of the Scriptures tell us of the future we have with Him in Heaven. That is why we can look up, and that is why He continues to look down.

Copyright 2007 by Desiree Pheister