EYE IN THE SKY

EYE IN THE SKY

I woke up about 3 a.m. and went outside to see the stars on this moonless night. It was cloudy all day, but tonight the sky was clear and the stars magnificent. I could see one of the best known constellations—the Big Dipper, in the northern sky. There’s 87 stars named in this constellation and they all have meanings centered on a sheepfold. The star names are translated “lamb,” “flock,” “the assembled,” “the appointed,” “the gathered.” The constellation and stars are mentioned several times in the Bible referring to the flock of God.

If you draw a line connecting the two stars at the farthest end of the dipper, they point straight to the North Star, which is the end star in the handle of the Little Dipper. This North Star is the central point of the heavens and all the other stars move circularly around it. However it is interesting to note that at one time this central star, around which all others concentrate, was in the constellation Draco, the dragon. But it has slowly and steadily moved into the Little Dipper, the small sheepfold of God.

If you follow the curve of the Big Dipper handle, you see two very bright stars. The first is Arcturus in the constellation Bootes. The picture is that of a man walking rapidly with a spear in his right hand and sickle in his left. The name Bootes comes from the Hebrew root word meaning “the coming.” It’s referred to in Psalm 96:13 “For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.”

Still following the curve from the handle of the Big Dipper, you come to the bright star, Spica, in Virgo’s left hand. Spica means an ear of corn. It also has the name Al Zimach, which means “branch” and is found in Jeremiah 23:5 “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.”

I love that God put all of this in the arrangement of the stars, so that even in the flurry of technology and the barrage of inconceivable inhumanity, we can still look around us and always see something created from a loving God. We can be assured that if we will only take a look, we can see that a God of love and magnificence is still over it all.

Love, Carolyn

WINGS: A Journey in Faith from the Earthly to the Heavenly is available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble online, both as an e-book and in paperback.