The other night, I stayed up later than my husband trying to finish watching one of my “girly” shows on Netflix. As I turned out the lights and prepared to climb into bed, I remembered he asked me to turn off the sprinkler that had been watering our sweet corn patch.
Quite begrudgingly, I left my dark room, turned on the kitchen lights and found my sandals. I turned off the water and glanced up at the sky. I was rewarded for my commitment to my husband with the beautiful display I saw in the night.
In the country, the stars are so much brighter. The sky was clear and black and was lit up with thousands of diamond-like stars, scattered artfully, purposefully across it. God’s creation does not disappoint!
I was immediately reminded of a portion of scripture from Psalms.
“Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens. Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” -Psalm 8:1-4, NIV.
The moon, the stars, the night sky—all are part of God’s incredible, indescribable creation. Like a painter or an architect, He originated and built the entire universe. The summer sky at night is certainly evidence of His divine work!
King David, the writer of Psalm 8, must have had a similar experience one night. In light of the expanse of God’s night sky, a human can feel pretty small and insignificant.
But the truth is this: God values us much more than He values the stars and the moon and the things He created.
When God created Adam, the first human, He was intimately involved. He got down in the dirt and formed man with His own hands. When He created the stars, He just used His voice.
God decided the man should be made to resemble Him. He said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness” (Genesis 1:26). Yes, in all of creation, we were made to stand out and point to our Creator.
God also breathed His own breath into our lungs. “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Gen. 2:7).
You see? Even though God’s creation is so amazing, people are His crowning achievement.
David lamented in Psalm 8, “What is mankind that You are even mindful of Him?” But we know because of God’s word that God loves people. All people. Each person was made in His image. Each person is sustained by His own breath.
I love the words in Zephaniah 3:17. It is such a loving picture of how God, our Father, dotes over us, His children and His precious creation. I’ll leave you with those words.
“The Lord your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in His love He will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.”
**This article first appeared on Cornerstone Church’s blog. You can view that here.
