Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Star Gazers Beware!


Hi fellow blog-watchers.... it has been many moons since my last blog. It seems life has been passing me by and I have not been keeping a record of it either here or in my personal journal for about the past 6 months... any who...
This past Christmas season saw us attend an observatory & planetarium event which advertised that we could come and learn how the "Star of Christmas", that the wise men from the east followed to the birthplace of Jesus, came to be. It was well presented and even quite credible especially the theory about the two planets lining up and thereby producing a star-like brilliance in the sky that would have lasted for a significant amount of time (long enough to fit with the Biblical story any way). Afterward, in the car on the way home, one of my daughters said boldly, "No matter what they say, I think God just did a miracle, and that's why the star was there." Somehow the mixing of science, in this case astronomy, and faith is always a fragile mix and often hard to decipher. In my opinion the two often work hand and glove and, in the end, who is to say what God actually did? Perhaps he simply timed the event to coincide up with the planetary alignments, or, he could have just as easily created a special star just for this wondrous occasion. I guess only God could really answer that one.
Recently I read of the serious difficulty that many folks are facing over the announcement that the astrological signs have been misinterpreted over the past 2500 years. Those who read their horoscopes and plan their lives accordingly have been dealt a death blow to their "faith". The zodiac signs they put so much of their trust in have been proven to be wrong! Astronomist Robert Roy Britt is quoted as saying, "The shift in the alignment of the stars, which has come about because the Earth has been wobbling on its axis for millennia, means most people go back a sign." This means that if you thought you were an others-focused and kindly Taurus...guess again... you are actually a self-centered and aggressive Aries! Talk about confusion reigning!
I guess all this simply supports what Christians have been saying all along. We need to put our faith in the maker of the stars no in the stars themselves. We must put our trust in the Creator not in his creation. At least then we can be confident in whom we have believed in rather than completely confused, uncertain and left with nothing but to 'wish upon a falling star'!