You wake up to a beautiful sunlit day and say to yourself, “It’s great to be alive.” You see no stars in the sky. Perhaps, a half-moon is seen in the distance, if you look enough. There is only her bright light enlightening our newfound day. Lucky us. We should all have more enlightening days than those darkening ones when the lights have apparently turned off. Who switched the switch?

What is learned doing brightening days? “Enjoy yourself. All is well. Life couldn’t be better than this?” What do those darkening days and nights teach us? Absolutely everything or is it absolutely everything?

In the darkness of night, stars are vividly seen. Some are steady; others are shooting themselves after what appears to be a new destination. Where are those traveling stars headed? I understand those steady stars; they mark the foundation and bedrock of our lives. We’d be lost without them.

Without those steady ones brightly shining in our darkness, then, we would surely lose our way. Or would we? But what about those flashing ones that stream across your kitchen window when you can’t sleep? Are their movements something that I’m missing, focusing only on those steady, flickering ones?

Sunlight needn’t show her other lights because she is glittering away for our peace and enjoyment.

In our culture, we hate the darkness. We keep trying to light up every evening with even more light. “Curse the darkness!” said someone.

The darknesses of life, I don’t need to list them because the longer we live, the more we experience and embrace them. Driving down the street, I saw a mural on a garage painted “Grow through what you go through.” I wanted to park and thank the owner, but traffic was behind me.

The light of our faith, or should I say the star of our faith? Jesus Christ. Not the movie star type but the star in our darknesses, even in the darkest times of our life. Jesus is both our steady and traveling star. The steady star of Jesus keeps us grounded and safe. That traveling star of Jesus invites and leads us to new insights, and vistas and to a stronger star than we’ve ever known before.

Simple thinking? “A pie in the sky?” Or, is it that brightly shining star during the darkest times of our lives?