Northern Lights    

“When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?” Psalm 8:3-4 NLT

Last week a major portion of North America was treated to a display of the Northern Lights. Aurora Borealis, as they are called, are spectacular displays of light that occur in the night sky caused by particles from the sun colliding with the earths upper atmosphere. There are many scientific terms and research that has been done by very intelligent people for explaining how and why these lights occur. I appreciate them all, but I’ll go with the most natural one of all, it’s God painting the sky.

David writing in Psalm 8 notes the wonders he sees in the night sky with the moon and stars. No magnificent light show of the aurora borealis is mentioned. But what David witnessed was enough. The numbers of stars he couldn’t count in the sky and the light of the moon proved God’s greatness and His magnificent show without any northern lights. On a side note, in David’s time the night sky had no intrusion from city lights, airplanes, or cloud-covered gases. David saw the night sky as God had intended it, a spectacular view and a portrait of His greatness.

How often do we pause to recognize God’s creation all around us? We shouldn’t need a reminder of a northern lights occurrence to pay attention to His handiwork. It is seen every day and everywhere if we look for it. The greatest northern light that has ever appeared was when God sent His Son, the light of the world, into this world to save us from our sin. You don’t need to wait for particles from the sun to collide with earth’s atmosphere to see His light, only for the Son to collide with your heart through the Holy Spirit. His light is always visible; will you see it?