Stars

Tonight I watched the movie stardust again, and it got me thinking and wondering. Why did we ever trade the stars for mercury vapor lamps?

Modern man, of which I am one, seems to have this predilection of being miserable with civilization and technology, and yet also miserable when it is not there. I mean I'm writing this on a laptop, connected wirelessly to the internet in my well lit heated apartment. What irony?

We have perfected being miserable, humans have succeeded in figuring out a way to be miserable with something that we are also miserable without. Some days I am reminded of my true longings and my true desires, you know the ones that dwell deep below the surface of selfish ambition and greed, below the obsession with comfort, with peace, the deep ontological desires that are at the very bed rock of being, those that make the "uncivilized" stare into the sky.

Almost all our entertainment speaks of it. Our movies, our books, our music parades around false realities of heros and adventures, and wonderful worlds that are not as dull and boring as everyday life seems to be. Man desires something more, at the very depths of our hearts we know that there is something else, that there is something bigger, something that can fill a hole gaping in ourselves. Most try to hide the hole, some try to close it with things of this world, some deny that it even exists and parade around with there eyes closed and ears shut so as to not notice. But then there are those like me, who tear that hole open larger, deeper, and rest in the terrible pain of longing that ensues. Because pain seems to be the only thing that seems to wake the anesthetized souls up from their mediocre slumber.

Nothing here can fill the void, or satisfy the hunger. All things here either point us to a Reality beyond, which can fulfill, or mask the longing in self deciving lies and pleasures.

I have found myself fascinated....no, obsessed with stars my entire life. Maybe its their otherworldy nature, their beauty, their mystery, their fertile ground for imagination and wonder, or maybe it is because they are the silent watchmen reminding us that this is not all there is. That our existence, our problems our pains, are not all that is. The stars remind us that there is more, that ther is More, a Reality in which we dwell with the One who created the heavens and the earth, the One who knit into us the wonder of the stars, the One who gave us this insatiable longing for more, and the only One whom can ever satisfy our greatest desire.

Lord satisfy me, for You alone can, and let me dance among the stars to the uncreated rhythm and be lost and found in Your infinite Glory.