Notes on Hope Devotional — Grateful, yet Grieving

Perfectly Placed

Isaiah 40:26
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
    Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
    and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
    not one of them is missing.

Last week, I watched intently as the Artemis II parachuted and descended into the ocean 60 miles off the coast of San Diego. As a high schooler, I recall sitting in front of the television watching Neil Armstrong take the first step onto the moon, saying these words, “That’s one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind.”

Today’s verse invites us to look up at the stars and the moon, and consider God as Creator of the entire universe. Knowing God perfectly positioned and named each star, galaxy, constellation, and planet is awe-inspiring. When I find myself in a window seat on a flight at night, and look out, I only get a glimpse of the enormity and expanse of the sky. The darkness displays the majesty of God’s power; “Because of his great power and mighty strength.”

Then the verse offers the minute details that not only do they each have a name, but “not one of them is missing.” There is completeness to the universe, an entirety that cannot be matched.

What grabs me most in this verse is how God controls the rising of the sun, the moon, and the stars, and wants to have a relationship with me. My smallness in light of His greatness and majesty; God’s power in light of my weakness. The same God who made the starry hosts knows my name and numbers the hair on my head. I can identify with David when he says in Psalm 139:5, “such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”

Go outside tonight and look up, then go to bed knowing the God who placed each star in place, not one is missing, sees you, knows you, hears you, loves you, and is with you.

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank You for evidence of Your exactness and precision in placing each star in the sky. Help me wrap my head around the truth of Your greatness, majesty, and faithfulness in the dailiness of my life.
In Jesus Mighty Name, Amen.