The universe looks differently when seen through Christ.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers
— the moon and the stars you set in place —
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
Yet you made them only a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
Psalm 8:3-5 New Living Translation

Nothing puts us in our place more than standing under the stars on a clear, moonless night. The weight of our paltry nature might cause us to look away from the stars. Who are we in the vastness of the universe?

Lutheran Valley Retreat, Colorado

Even though King David didn’t have super telescopes and today’s scientific knowledge, he still felt unimportant when he stood under the stars. Think about what the night sky looked like around 1000 B.C. Light pollution didn’t exist and no man made particles floated through the air. The stars had a intensity that we see only on high mountain tops far removed from our cities.

David was humbled by the stars, and so are we.

Yet, David immediately recalls how God also created human beings. As the heart of his creation, human beings are only a little lower than the heavenly beings, set to be the caretakers of all that God placed on this planet.

So, which is more humbling: to stand under the stars, or to consider our position with God? Maybe that’s not a fair question since we decided that we didn’t need God and rebelled against him, bring death to the life that God breathed into us.

Maybe we would be better off viewing David’s words like the writer of Hebrews did. He saw this psalm pointing to Jesus, the ultimate human being (Hebrews 2:6-8). Through his death and resurrection God has crowned him with glory and honor. And through Christ’s redemptive love for us, and through our baptismal clothing, God bestows on us his glory and honor.

In Christ we no longer stand under the night sky contemplating our insignificance, but how cherished we are by God, that even though we cannot number the stars, he knows us. He knows you.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner