Looking up at the sky tonight

 

Jupiter and Saturn will be aligned tonight at 5.00pm in a rare occurrence, the previous time being 400 years ago. Together they will look considerably brighter than planets normally appear in the night sky. This conjunction has been referred to by some as the Star of Bethlehem, which is a bright idea but hardly likely to be literally true. It might seem great to confirm spiritual truths with scientific verification but we should be very wary of that idea. After all, if this idea was somehow shown to be correct, it wouldn’t necessarily affirm the Christmas story.

The alignment of planets, the phases of the moon, eclipses and comets have always intrigued people and it is a valuable scientific endeavour to understand the universe. I am looking forward to finding our more from two of my grandchildren who are beginning to show a keen interest in the planets and the stars. However, attaching meaning to what we see in the sky is another matter entirely, and just how planets moving round the sun can influence my day-to-day experiences, as astrology suggests, is impossible to comprehend.

The Star of Bethlehem is suggested in The First Nowell as coming to “stop and stay, right o’er the place where Jesus lay”. It’s a delightful picture and in a poetic way it invokes the travellers being guided to the infant Christ. However, our sun is a star, a furnace over 93 million miles away, and we really wouldn’t want a star any closer than that, despite our current low temperatures in Hertford.

Looking out of the window, I suspect that Jupiter and Saturn will be obscured by clouds tonight, alas. It could be a picture of our understanding. I do believe that the birth and life of Jesus is written into the fabric of the universe, for we believe the incarnation to be the central pivot of God’s revelation to us, and since he is light in the darkness then being led by light to the holy birth seems a wonderful picture.

Sometimes our own vision is so limited, we forget the wider picture, we let the clouds block us out. The clouds can be our own misunderstandings or personal issues which prevent us from worshipping and loving Jesus, the true Light of the World. In these troubled, uncertain times, we need to let the light of Christ shine in our lives, for our own souls’ sake and that we can bring light to others who also find clouds preventing them from knowing the love of God among us, full of grace and truth.