Emphasis Preaching Journal

Imagine the night, moonless. Imagine the world in its own shadow. So many live in the night, and in the shadow of our own making. Stand under a cloudless sky. The artist's brush has washed across the dark heavens a milky way ... so many stars as to be unimaginable, lending their light to the shadow in which we dwell. Among the myriad of tiny but powerful lights the constellations are in their fixed course. See Orion, the Big Dipper, the Pleides, and our compass star. Night by night brilliant planets wing their course, on occasion there sweeps across our night sky a speeding comet, angelic gown of dusty light.

With ancient shepherds sit in awe of the depth of crystal blue-black night and hear the sounds not of earth but of the universe. What song do the stars sing? ... What message do they bring?

Small planet, at galaxy's fringe, consider yourself a miracle for you are, though you have taken ypurself for granted. Your miracle is an axis tilted to the sun, saving you from intolerable extremes. Your miracle is a moon by which the tides rise and fall that sea and land might interact and spawn life that otherwise would never be. Your miracle is you. A baby born ... an idea in the mind of God, given form and inteiligence, to save the world and reach out to the lights of the night. Listen to the star song, angel song, God's song in the night ... O holy night, night divine.
-- Bond