When my Granddaughter was a
baby, there was a special song between us.
She would get quiet when I sang it. Her wise infant eyes would search my own and
her hand would rub my cheek. As she
grew, she loved music, but that song emerged again and again. It was on my computer play list and often she
would pull it up to listen. She learned
all the words. I wanted her to
understand the song’s over all meaning:
No matter how hard the circumstances of your life, you were created by
God’s plan and heart from the beginning; He loves you and has a perfect path
for you to travel- a spot for you to fill.
When I look at the starts at
night, I think of it still- “Child, you’re like a star, set apart, set apart
from the start of the world. This is your time, rise and shine; Rise and shine
child, you’re one of a kind.”
In Psalm 147 I read that God
counts the stars and calls them each by name.
It’s not just a matter of him knowing how many they are. I’m a counter. I number things, I count them and search for
the misplaced items. But this has an
endearing quality. He made them and he
loves them. In Isaiah 40 I see that He
calls their name as they appear and by His strength and power not one of them
is missing.
We were created to
shine. I can’t explain why life cuts and
bruises us. I can’t explain how mankind
can be so cruel to those who are vulnerable or even helpless. We live in a fallen world and it works hard to
be sure we remain beaten down and subject to its darkness. Yet God calls us by a name He gave to shine
individually. Unthinkable things happen but unfathomable grace exists.
We are referred to as stars
in His crown. He loves each and has
fashioned a place for it to take on individual brilliance. And he will dig us out of the dirt and clean
us off for his glory and purpose. The
world may have soiled my garments, my own choices may have joined the tearing
and bruising, but God has great power and mighty strength and he knows where I
am and still has a spot carved for me.
A line from a song Rich
Mullins wrote has been stirred in my brain of late. “Sometimes I think of Abraham, how one star
he saw had been lit for me.” Abraham was
promised that his descendants would outnumber the stars. Through the obedience of Christ to death and
God’s power to draw him back out of the ‘dirt’ of death, we, by faith through
grace are part of Abraham’s heritage according to both Hebrews and Romans.
The ability to shine is not
my own. It is in the heart of the Father
from eternity past. I must choose it and
yet I am chosen and the work is His –one of a kind.
“Sometimes everything’s too
much like the deepest cut it hurts to be touched. When you hear, it when you feel it, don’t let
it have its way. What I’m trying to say
is there’s no one like you to take the place of you; oh can’t you see you’re
one of a kind? Child, you’re like a
star: set apart from the start of the world.” (The Letter; Newsboys)
“Those
who are wise will
shine like the brightness of the
heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.” (Daniel
12:3)
The world has its stars, but tomorrow they fade
and others will replace them. God has His
stars and He knows them by name and calls them forth and they shine forever in
their spot by His power and might. I
have tried to shine in my own power.
It’s exhausting. I’ve tried to
carve out a spot for myself with effort and ingenuity. It’s never quite what I
imagine and it’s short lived, requiring more and more until I am spent and
frustrated. Yet God knows me and has
prepared a place for me to shine by His power and might. One of a kind.
