Consider the Heavens

“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Psalm 8:3-4, NIV)

Let me just say it here – I hate time change. I hate the springtime change more than I hate the fall time change – but I immensely dislike that we change the time. Of course, I know that time isn’t actually changing – it is only our practice of measuring time that changes, but still, it is, at best, an inconvenience. In the spring, especially, I lose an hour of sleep.

I read of a man who refused to change for daylight savings time the way everyone else did. He would only do it in 15-minute increments per day – so it took him the better part of a week to make the change completely.

In the spring, I think getting up in the dark is the hardest thing for me. I don’t like to get up – and I don’t do it gracefully. I resist until the last possible moment – and even then, I’m rather grumpy about the whole thing. But when it is dark outside – my body screams in protest – “NO! I don’t want to!”

There is, however, a “but” when I say that. Once I am up and on my way, riding my vanpool to work – I enjoy looking up at the sky. Granted, the streetlights and other light sources in and surrounding Atlanta do not allow me to see many stars. I know they are there even when I can’t see them. I am fascinated by the thought that thousands of years ago – the constellations of Orion, the Bear (Big Dipper) and Pleiades are mentioned (see Job 9:9, Job 38:31 - 32 and Amos 5:8). When we took our trip to Florida a couple of weeks ago, there was nothing to keep me from seeing the heavens, and all their glory.

Even in those things we hate, there is something to celebrate. Perhaps I will spend more time “considering the heavens” and less time complaining about getting up in the dark – at least until tomorrow morning.