What Amazing Love
by Jenny Kilgour 19 November 2020
Psalm 8: 3-4
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
“You deserve it!” whispered a voice persuasively in my half-asleep mind the day the clocks went forward. “Go on! Stay in bed a bit longer! You’ve been ill, you’re exhausted, it will do you good!” As I struggled through to consciousness and cats which needed feeding, two verses from Psalm 8 started competing with that voice. Not that the first voice was telling untruths: far from it!
Growing up in the country, I was fascinated by the night sky and always wondered what was “out there”. When I eventually discovered, it came as a shock. Not “Twinkle, twinkle, little star” but “Twinkle, twinkle hypergiant star”! Not “How I wonder what you are”, but “You are vast, you are ferocious, you are awesome”! “So high” became “thousands of trillions of miles away”.
Take Betelgeuse, the tenth brightest star in the night sky. As you look at Orion, it’s at the left on his shoulder. If it replaced our sun, it would extend out to the orbit of Jupiter, the fifth planet from the sun. It’s 700 light years away, that’s 4,200,000,000,000,000 miles. Or take UY Scuti in the centre of the Milky Way, about 1 ½ times the diameter of Betelgeuse, and perhaps the largest known star to date, approximately 9,500 light years away, or 56,000,000,000,000,000 miles.
Unimaginable sizes, unimaginable distances, incomprehensible fire-breathing stars which have been created by our wonderful God: the Lord who left his throne in glory to come and live on this insignificantly small planet in an insignificantly small solar system to rescue us by dying for us, and to give us new life because he loves us. What amazing love!!
We pray
Lord, once again we ponder on your sacrifice for us - a sacrifice made in love. As we struggle to live lives which reflect your love, we know we often fail. Thank you for your forgiveness full and free for all who trust in you. Thank you that nothing at all can separate us from your love.
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