It has become customary for our New Year’s message to include a picture of Star Trails; a powerful illustration of the greatness and the immensity of God’s creation and also of the fleeting of time. The picture you see is not a painting or a computer-generated graphic nor is it some kind of digital camera glitch. It is real and the swirls are authentic.
These circular rings are called Star Trails. This photograph was created using open exposure on the camera to capture the movement of the stars in the evening sky which is otherwise undetectable to the naked eye.
Each swirl represents a star or a galaxy containing billions of stars which are light years away. What is extraordinary is that they are revolving around a specific point in the sky known as the north celestial pole, the North Star, also called Polaris. If you go out at night and find the North Star you will notice that it does not move, at least during the course of the night, while all the other stars do move; they rotate from east to west around the North Star.
It is as if they are worshipping or bowing down to their Creator, as if He becomes the center, the focal point of their existence and purpose. When looking at this picture we may remember the words of David in Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God.”
One might wonder what David would have written had he seen what we are able to see today. And considering this universe’s immensity in that the closest star is millions of years away from us, and considering that the Lord, as Creator, is even outside the universe we ask, how can we ever get to Him? It is practically impossible for our humanity is closed off to the ever expanding and infinitely vast universe. This is when the Messiah comes to our rescue. The Scriptures say that He travelled this distance to come to save us; this passage is read in John 3:13 which says, “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.”
The word no one takes on its fullest meaning when you consider this unattainable and unexplored universe. It is only Yeshua Who could and did come down to save us, for Micah tells us that He comes from a time and space outside of this vast universe which He created, He comes from everlasting, from eternity.
Only He is able to take us and bring us through this universe in absolutely no time, even in the twinkling of an eye.
This is the unfathomable wonder behind the Rapture. When Yeshua said I go and prepare a place for you, we understand this place is somewhere up there, perhaps outside of this universe. It is there in that New Jerusalem where our new home is being built. And at the same, He says in John 14:3, “I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
This is the promise that tells us that one day in the future, space and time may never separate us from God. The witness of the creation speaks along with the Scriptures concerning the great mystery of our salvation.