When the Stars Come Out

reconsidering the seemingly isolated moments

There are moments of time that dance across the stage of my memory without invitation. They often alight when I am mindlessly involved in some mundane task such as unloading the dishwasher or sorting through the mail.

In one such moment, it’s 1982—I’m four years old. It’s late in the evening and very dark out. I am sitting in the passenger seat of my father’s truck. The window is rolled down. I am mesmerized at the sight of the stars above. I struggle to pull my gaze from their radiant charisma as I experience something for which I don’t have language to frame up. This nebulous encounter is almost overwhelming. I hold this view for as along as I am able as my father drives down the road.

There were many other moments similar to this—moments full of wonder and mystery that I could not explain but innately knew were connected to God. Moments that I never shared simply because it never crossed my mind to do so. I silently marveled at them over the years when they chose to appear from the back of my mental filing cabinet.

These moments reappear from time to time like familiar old friends. But as I ponder them now, I wonder if they were something more than a mere moment. As a little girl, I thought that perhaps Jesus would be returning soon as that was a story I understood from my Sunday school lessons. I assumed that Jesus lived in the starry Heaven, and because I could literally feel the stars it must mean that he was very very close.

But now, as an adult, I believe these moments were small puzzle pieces in the blueprint of my destiny that are still available for my consideration as they have never lost their sense of awe and wonder. Like dreams, they are divine invitations into deeper conversations with God. Or perhaps they are dimensions of God that are longing to be discovered.

Either way, these seemingly isolated moments create an interesting narrative when I step back and consider them as a collection of encounters.

A common thread begins to appear, and I gain understanding that was never accessible before.

So often in the charismatic church experience, we are focused on experiencing God’s presence or pursuing a God encounter—which is something we should go after. However, encounters with God of any kind are an opportunity to go deeper and to expand into a greater place of oneness and awareness. Moments with God aren’t for our feel good entertainment or emotional high; but these moments are the beginnings of a lifelong conversation.

Of the many God encounters I have experienced over the course of my life, it seems the ones connected to nature have been the most puzzling because we don’t exactly have hymns or Bible stories about the songs of the stars or the voice of the trees. When experience defies understanding and language, all one can do is look for clues in Scripture and begin a conversation with the One who created the stars.

For you shall go out in joy

and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and the hills before you

shall break forth into singing,

and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. [Isaiah 55:12]

What about you—what moments throughout your timeline have imprinted you with awe and wonder and left you wanting more? What invitations are awaiting deeper reconsideration? What narrative has been trying to unfold in the story of your life?

So many questions—I know! But I am curious if you have had similar thoughts and/or experiences.

All the best,

Melody

(P.S. For the next few months, I will be publishing every other Wednesday. I’ll talk more about that in the next newsletter.)