God] is the Maker of the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the constellations of the south. He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted (Job 9:9-10)

Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? ( Job 38:31-31),

One of the many negative aspects of modern urban living is that we are not exposed to the stars night after night.  What a misfortune it is that the lights of the night we see from Los Angeles to Tokyo to Sydney to Frankfort to London are flashing Coke and Sony signs and MacDonald’s golden arches.  Our children can name dozens of commercial products by their lighted signs before they can even read, but my guess is that not one in a hundred could find the constellations Orion or the Pleiades, let alone give them a name. Indeed, how many adults could identify the Pleiades if exposed to a night sky dark enough to actually see that striking cluster of stars? [In fact, my spell checker couldn't even find it!]

Pleiades

How many know the stars called “the Bear and its cubs”?  In Latin their names are Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, meaning Great Bear and Little Bear and are commonly referred to as the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper.  And how many know that the brightest star in the Little Dipper is named Polaris—the Pole Star or the North Star—because it is almost directly above the North Pole and has served for millennia as the most important navigational light in the Northern Hemisphere?

Even as near in time as the mid-twentieth century, the majority of people in North America could see most visible stars on a clear night.  On a midsummer’s night the kids in my neighborhood would, like thousands of kids around the country, lie on our backs and chant in unison, “Star light, star bright/The first star I see tonight;/I wish I may, I wish I might,/Have the wish I wish tonight.”  And in our young souls, we would silently ponder deep thoughts about the wonders of the heavens and God.

Living in light-polluted Grand Rapids with cloud cover well over 40% of our days, I seldom see the Milky Way, and I miss it.  What’s truly sad to me, however, is that most children these days don’t even know what the Milky Way is and are almost stunned when they happen to be exposed to it the first few times.  Contrast that with the awe-inspiring aspect children experienced almost every cloudless night before the Industrial Revolution and global urbanization.

Milky Way from Death Valley

Our souls need the stars.  We need to be reminded of the vastness of the cosmos and the smallness of Earth.  We need them to show us the greatness of our Creator.  When we see how grand the universe is, as Job and his “comforters” did, and realize that we are as dust—yet so loved by the Creator/Savior that He chose to walk the earth with us, we cannot cease but to be humbled by the One who “performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.”

[He]did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-7 NASB).

[Tokyo MacDonald's sign source: nickburcher]
[Star photos from Wikipedia]