Wonder Full.

“I see Your power in the moonlit night
Where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright
We are amazed in the light of the stars
It’s all proclaiming who You are
You’re beautiful, You're beautiful”

~Phil Wickham “Beautiful”

Here I sit, beneath a blanket of stars. They shine overhead like a million tiny fireflies in a sea of smoke, like a million tiny Christians in the world.  As I see them shimmer and sing, they remind me of God’s promises.  An early covenant with Abraham, “count the stars and remember…”  This is my chance to count the stars and recall what God has been showing me in the past 6 months.  It all began in Mexico, on a starry night much like this, in a tiny town in the Yucatan Peninsula.  Promise #1: The Lord hears our prayers.  I had been praying for months and finally was on a mission trip in Mexico.  After a busy day, news came that some had received salvation.  We rejoiced over how God heard our prayers for salvation as we rode back in our van in the depths of night, we prayed for the rest of the trip and sang worship songs.  We prayed for the churches in Mexico and how God is accomplishing so much there.   Two weeks later, I stood on a ship, under the very same stars, praising the very same Lord, but in a completely new environment.  I was somewhere on the Aegean sea, the same one the apostle Paul had made his missionary voyages on.  I learned there about literal ruins and spiritual ruins.  I learned about how crucial a true relationship with God is and also how significant worship is.  i was burdened in my heart for Greece, a country with more crosses and churches perhaps that other and nearly 95% Christians, of which most do not actually know Christ personally.  Greece is beautiful on the outside, but now full of empty religion.  Promise #2: God will make beauty for ashes.  Promise #3: Worship the Lord, no matter where, no matter when, He longs for it.  Fast forward and I’m a million miles away back in the US.  And I’m driving home for work, heading west, and there they are, brilliant stars.  Reminders.  As i have a spiritual attack on the way home as I am overwhelmed by doubt, I look up and remember: Promise #4: God is faithful.  He works all things together for good.  He has plans for me for peace and not for evil, to give me a future and a hope.  I hope in this.  After driving home several nights alone, I abandon Florida for a week to visit the beautiful midwest.  At my grandmother’s house in Missouri, it is pitch black outside and the only light is from the moon and stars.  I had just ran a mile or so as the sun was setting, listening to Casting Crown’s song Here at your feet.  I rejoice in the night.  i understand Promise #5: God’s yoke is easy and burden is light. I can lay my every burden here at His feet.  God wants me not to hold on, but surrender all before him.  Suddenly, life is much easier. but only until things begin to change and I’m back at home starting senior year.  Then, the promises begin to fade like the stars by the incandescent streetlights in the city I live in.  A break sends me to Chicago where my friend and I pray under the stars by Navy Pier.  And I know this, Promise #6: Though I live in a big world, with so many lost, hurting, and broken, God is holding the world in His hand.  His hand? Where was His hand when I found I had pneumonia a couple weeks later?  Still in control… He wants me to grow closer to Him, even if that takes hardships.  Promise #7 under the stars in my backyard: God is drawing people closer to Him.  Whether it is teaching me to “Be still and know that He is God” by getting pneumonia, or transforming countless people’s lives by Harvest Crusades, or working in the lives of my classmates, God desires for us to know Him. 

                I sit beneath a blanket of stars, waiting for Promise #8.  I am steadfast.  time is flying by and stars are shooting across the sky, but God is unchanging, His promises are endless, and His love endures forever.