Tom is helping with a night sky event being held here at Pipe Spring National Monument in September.  He will be in charge of one of the powerful telescopes pointing toward different constellations and planets.  Tom knows all the constellations and has tried, unsuccessfully, to teach them to me.  I just don’t see well at night and I only see about half the stars he can see.

But even so, we have had two absolutely spectacular nights for star-gazing in the last week.  On Saturday night the sky was so clear that the Milky Way looked like a gauzy sheet spread out over the sky above us.  Monday night, when Tom and Ranger Autumn were practicing with the telescope, the sky was again incredibly clear.  All the planets were aligned in an arc across the sky.  Even I could find Scorpio without any trouble.  There was a shooting star that traveled far enough Autumn had time to spot it and draw our attention to it before it faded.

On clear nights like that, I stand amazed at what God has done.  Through billions of years, God has created and continues to create.  Every star set in place by his hand.  How can we doubt, when we consider the stars above us, that there is a Creator?

Tom and I are living in a beautiful place this summer.  Our RV sits at the base of the Vermilion Cliffs.  We get to hike in places so spectacular that people come from all over the world to see them.  But at night, all that fades away and the stars become the scenic stars.  And, by looking at them, we consider the awesome grandeur of the universe and our little place in it.