Tonight I searched the stars...it has become a fond habit of mine. The Universe is so quiet on a starlit night, devoid of the rush of the day and the ceaseless chatter of human beings. It is always an opportunity for me to still my soul and listen--listen for the ancient silence that Abraham and Moses knew in the wide desert, or that Jesus experienced as he wandered the Judean wilderness. Tonight, as is so often the case when all is quiet, my mind settled upon my sister, Layla. As the tears flowed in the darkness, I looked up at the innumerable host of stars above me, wondering once again if perhaps she could see me so far beneath heaven. Silently, I asked the Son why--why had he taken her? What was the point of all this? How long has man searched the darkened sky, pleading and beseeching the heavens for an answer to the grief and loneliness of mortal life? Despair comes when we view God as something far removed from ourselves, an emotionless potentate who dictates his will from a throne so distant as to be rendered obsolete amidst the onslaught of earthly trials. I attempted to read the stars, grief clutching at my heart and my mind wondering if the Creator of such a vast Universe regarded me at all, or knew what it felt like to sit at a bedside and watch a loved one pass from the world. Then in the night, beneath that blanket of stars, an answer came, falling from heaven and dispelling my despair...two words...only two words...
"Jesus Wept"
He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
ReplyDeleteHe telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
Psalm 147:3-5