Kokaubeam!

The little desert valley where we live is surrounded on all sides by low hills (actually the back side of mountains), two sides - east and south are particularly close. Sometimes, when the moon rises on a clear night, it appears enormous as it begins to peek over the Eastern hills eating up what seems like miles of jet black horizon. The amber colour is like unto the flesh of a summer squash; and as it flies higher into the grey night sky -it becomes so bright white it almost hurts to view it. Your eyes are so wide open searching for any light source in the west, then you see that big orb in the sky straight above you and the reflection of the sun on it's surface shrinks your pupils so painfully fast it gives both pleasure and pain at the same time. The surface is so clear you can see the craters and valleys and shadows. I love that moon.

I love that fact that although we haven't much to look at during the day light hours, we have beautiful sunsets and glorious stars. I don't say glorious without meaning full of glory.

glory: n 1. very great praise, honour, or distinction - renown. 2. a source of honour, fame or admiration. 3. adoring praise, worshipful thanksgiving. 4. resplendent beauty, magnificence. 5. state of great splendor or prosperity. 6. state of absolute happiness, gratification. 7. the splendor and bliss of heaven. 8. to exult with triumph, rejoice proudly. 9. to boast. 10. "Glory be to God" as used to express surprise and elation. - Webster's

All of these I have experienced while witnessing the stars above my home, in my valley. Like Abraham (see Abr. 2:16), I look up and understand that "eternity is our covering and our rock and our salvation as we journey"... Those stars I see are the same he saw, and they were placed there by my Salvation and if I continue to look to Him while I journey I will be blessed. And I do enjoy looking at those stars! I am humbled by them. There are some who say stars fade, they fall, they shoot away to nothingness. Science tells us they die. I was created to last forever. Those beautiful stars will die and I will live forever! Pretty amazing.

Have you ever just sat and stared at them? I mean so much so that you feel that some of them are indeed closer than others in your depth of field. Long enough to notice them swirl and find their path in the long night hours? I remember one night I was alone in my thoughts. I was driving through the desert on my way home and just lost my breath as I looked through my bug splattered windshield into eternity. I was struck by the numbers and vastness of the space within my vision. I am not learned at all, but I knew, the Spirit was testifying to me about truth and space and the purpose of all those stars. I felt kinship to Abraham and wondered and awed at what he must have experienced when the heavens were opened to his faithful eyes. I am filled thinking about it even still.

Abraham was taught about order and time and eternity via the stars. He was instructed that greater light moves slower (Abr.3:4-10) and that the Lord's time is equal to our thousand years. To me there is much to be said in the statement that we, as a society, should slow down. Some folks say to smell flowers while doctors say to just relax and catch a breath to lower our blood pressure. As we approach the latter days on this planet, whether they be a few weeks from now as some always claim or a few thousand years down the road as others hope, no one can argue the world will become faster and faster. We know from prophecy and revelation that Satan's influence will become stronger and stronger as the last days approach. Do you see the same correlation I do? As we are more influenced by Satan our world grows faster and faster, while the Lord's time remains constant and ordered and slow.

"And it was in the night time when the Lord spake these words unto me: I will multiply thee, and thy seed after thee, like unto these; and if thou canst count the number of sands, so shall the number of thy seeds." - Abr.3:14