Constellations and Stars

My wife and I are learning to talk at a frequency only heard between 5’ 8” and 6’ 3” — that precise altitude where only the adults can hear. As we practiced one day, we spoke of a series of meetings that I’d been having. As we talked through this coffee and that lunch, my bride asked me how they were connected. What do this mentor and that client have in common? I took them as unrelated, yet she challenged my perspective. She kept prodding and wondered out loud about what God was up to. ‘Something is happening. I wish I know what God was up to. This could get fun.’ She was right. She usually is.

Off I went to map out the meetings and study the connections of the relationships. 'Tuesday’s coffee goes to church with a lady who lives near Wednesday’s lunch. Maybe God wants me to go to church there?’ Pontification at its worst.

Her question did prompt a fresh perspective and I began to see patterns emerge. Certain 'stars’ in my view of the sky lit up and others dimmed. Some appeared in clusters and some stood alone. I shared with her that I was beginning to see lions and tigers and bears in the patterns but that I had no idea what it all meant.

‘Why,’ she asked.
‘Why what?’ I defended.
‘Why do you have to figure it out?’
‘Didn’t you ask me what God was up to? That’s what I’m trying to figure out’
*chuckles.* 'Good luck figuring out The Creator!.'

Ouch.

"It wasn’t a question to answer, but a question to wonder” she noted.

Seems like the difference between stars and constellations is wonder. Do we lose the beauty of the creation (and the Creator) in our attempts to make meaning of it? There’s a stark contrast between astrology and astronomy. The first reads into the stars, conjuring meaning where there is none and the latter seeks to understand how it all works. And yet both stand apart from the Beauty of the stars.

“I wonder what God is up to”, she asks. Me too.