Seeing Stars
The night sky is washed out by the big city. Only the largest and brightest stars and planets are visible. The light pollution prevents us from seeing the subtleties of the Milky Way or recognizing all the points that make up the well-known constellations. In the city the night sky is a dull gray, people’s eyes are not fully dilated, the stunning majesty that comes in realizing our place in the universe is lost. It is easy to forget what is right over our heads until we find ourselves in a location where dark skies can be experienced with depth and clarity.
I was reminded of this on a recent trip to the mountains of North Carolina. We arrived late, but on a perfectly clear night. Stepping out of the car took my breath away. There above us were all the stars, galaxies, and constellations that were invisible to us the night before. I stood transfixed, caught between the sheer joy experiencing the subtle light filling my eyes and the sadness of missing it for so long. The big stars are visible in both locations, but it’s the dimmer smaller ones, the ones that add the context and majesty, that are lost in the city.
It caused me to consider what other pollution exists in my life preventing me from seeing the less obvious? Who are the people that I overlook because my schedule is too full? What are the needs God desires me to meet that go unnoticed because my own agenda has cluttered my thinking? Where are the voices that get drowned out by noise with which I have filled my life? We are consistently provided opportunities to experience service of God in the less obvious places, in the lives of those drowned out by the incessant noise, overlooked because our eyes are not fully open. Yet, it is in those contexts that God is most evident and experienced most certainly.
Jesus reminds us of the opportunities to meet God in our lives in the Gospel of Matthew, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me,” (Matt. 25:40). Which one of us would ever forego an opportunity to be in the very presence of God? Yet, how many of those moments do we miss because they go unrecognized, our eyes and lives too polluted to realize?
As we pause to give thanks to God this week for the blessings that never cease may we also pray that God allows us to recognize the “light pollution” in which we are immersed. In those rare moments when our eyes are suddenly fully open, we realize how much we have been missing. May we seek to know and meet God in those places most likely to contain the majesty of the divine.
This Advent season, let us be intentional about reducing the noise so we may hear the voice of God in others, slowing down to organize the clutter of our minds, and allowing our eyes to be fully open to truly see all the people in our midst.
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Dan Kreiss, RPC’s Associate Pastor for Mission Outreach, brings with him a heart for service and a diverse array of experiences in the mission field. Be sure to subscribe to the Mission Outreach Blog to read and follow along as he documents his personal journey and shares his vision for RPC’s mission outreach commitment. Along with providing meaningful resources, this blog will help jumpstart the important conversations our church community must be having about missional living.
Dan Kreiss
Rev. Dr. Dan Kreiss is the Associate Pastor for Mission Outreach at RPC. Dan is particularly passionate about encouraging the church to reflect the diversity found in its surrounding community in regard to age, gender, ethnicity, education and economic status.