It has become a tradition with our New Year’s message that we show the Star Trails which is a powerful illustration of the greatness and the immensity of God’s creation and also of the fleeting of time.
This picture is not a computer-generated graphic or 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 by using open exposure in order to capture the movement of the stars in the evening sky. This movement is otherwise imperceptible to the naked eye. Each swirl represents a star or a galaxy containing billions of stars which are all very far away from us and they are revolving around a specific point in the sky known as the North Celestial pole. This is where the North Star or Polaris is located.
If you go out at night and find the North Star you will notice that it does not move, while all the other stars do. They rotate from east to west around the north star. When looking at this picture our thoughts are drawn to the words of David in Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1).
Do you ever wonder what David would have written if he had seen what we are able to see today, how all the stars up there revolve around one specific point, 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.
While each swirl may represent galaxies of billions of stars, the Bible says in Psalm 147 that the Lord knows each one of them and He gave each a name. Consider the immensity of the universe. The closest star to us is known as Proxima Centauri, and it is 4.2 light years away. Let me give that to you in kilometers. One light year is 9.4 trillion kilometers. That means that the closest star to us is around 38 trillion kilometers away. That is an incredible distance to comprehend. If God is beyond this universe, how then can we ever travel the distance to get to Him? This universe is far too impassible for us as we are. But this is when the Messiah comes to the rescue.
Messiah to Our Rescue
The Scriptures say that He travelled this distance to come to save us; John 3:13 reads, 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 in this verse takes on great meaning when you consider this yet 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 beyond this universe. He comes from Everlasting, from Eternity. And today He is able to take us and bring us through this universe in absolutely no time, in the twinkling of an eye. This is the unfathomable wonder behind the Rapture.
Nothing Can Separate Us from the Lord
When Yeshua said I go and prepare a place for you, it is somewhere up there, past this universe – it is the New Jerusalem that He is speaking of. And in that same verse, in John 14:3 He says, 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 space and time may never separate us from God. The witness of the creation speaks along with the Scriptures concerning the greatness and out of this universe salvation that we have been gifted to receive.