My friend and author, Carrie Daws, has opened my eyes to what a great God we have watching over us. Thank you, Carrie, for sharing this inspirational blog with us today.
Carrie:
How many stars can you name? Not movie or sports stars, but actual stars in the night sky. I know Polaris. And Orion–no, wait. That’s a constellation. And, ummm. Hmm. Yeah, I think I’m done. I can name exactly one star. Not very impressive, is it?
Have you ever wondered how many stars are out there? If you’ve ever been in a dark, country area where you aren’t surrounded by city or street lights, it’s amazing. Pinpricks of light cover the midnight sky, perhaps for no other reason but that God spoke them into existence.
Pinpricks of light cover the midnight sky, perhaps for no other reason but that God spoke them into existence. Click To TweetI went looking for an estimate on the number of stars in the universe. Clearly, I’m out of my league here. Although it makes sense to me now, my very non-scientific brain didn’t even consider adding the detail “observable universe.” I suppose a piece of me believes that someone out there can answer my question with an exactness. A knowing that goes beyond complex formulas.
SkyandTelescope.com says astronomers estimate that the observable universe “has more than 100 billion galaxies. Our own Milky Way is home to around 300 billion stars. … By measuring the number and luminosity of observable galaxies, astronomers put current estimates of the total stellar population at roughly 70 billion trillion.”
Some websites agree with Skyandtelescope’s numbers and other websites have larger numbers, but it doesn’t really matter for this discussion. That’s a lot of stars, and no one on earth knows if that’s all of them.
But my heart instinctively relaxes when reading Psalm 147:4. It says that not only does God determine the number of stars, He calls them each by name. Billions of trillions of stars. And God calls them each by name.
If that’s not impressive enough, Isaiah 40:26 says, Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
Not one changes form or explodes without God knowing. Not one.
I sometimes have trouble coming up with the right name for the one of my three children standing in front of me. And more than once I’ve walked the neighborhood looking for a lost dog.
But you see, that’s the point of these verses. God is bigger and smarter and more in control–way more than me or you. If He can keep track of the names and positions of billions of trillions of stars across more than one hundred billion galaxies, do you seriously think He’s going to have any trouble keeping track of the people who love Him? The people who seek Him?
Rest assured: God watches over you.
The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. ~Psalm 121:8
The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. ~Ps.121:8 Read Carrie's take on the stars. Click To Tweet
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Carrie is the author of over fifteen inspirational books, both fiction and non-fiction. Her non-fiction books were written to help military wives thrive and handle the different aspects of military life.
Please check out her website and the free gifts she gives away there, or her amazon page which includes a list of all her books:
Carrie’s website HERE
Carrie’s Amazon page HERE