Daily Word of Grace # 224 (April 21, 2021)
In his beautiful 2009 novel South of Broad the late Pat Conroy, from the perspective of protagonist Leo King, writes: “At night (my father) would take my brother, Steve, and me out into the boat to the middle of Charleston Harbor and make us memorize the constellations. He treated the stars as though they were love songs written to him by God. With such reverence he would point out Canis Major, the hound of Orion the Hunter…A stargazer of the first order, he squealed with pleasure on the moonless nights when the stars winked at him in some mysterious, soul-stirring graffiti of ballet-footed light” (3). Having lived near Charleston many years ago, and having always loved the constellation of Orion the Hunter—especially from many dark early mornings delivering The Washington Post as a teenager—this passage really resonated with me, for the stars are indeed “love songs written to (us) from God.” In scripture Job tells us, God alone “made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades” and “does great things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number” (Job 9:9-10). Similarly the prophet Amos writes, “The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name” (Amos 5:8). But it goes even deeper than that, as at the end of Revelation Jesus declares, “I am the bright morning star” (Revelation 22:16). In other words, the Creator of the stars, love songs from God, is himself that love song written to and for you, now and always.
Love and Prayers,
Dave