The television news had been blaring nearly all day, pouring out fear, uncertainty, and anger over COVID-19. So many are afraid of their health, afraid for their loved ones, afraid of losing jobs and of losing the political stability of the nation. Watching the constant stream of news only increased our sense of helplessness. With all this threat and uncertainty, our weary souls needed to find an antidote to a growing sense of powerlessness. As the frightful virus grows, our sense of control has been shrinking. Watching the politicians and experts on the news never satisfied our need for answers but often added to our fears.
On Monday afternoon, I suddenly got a crazy idea. It was time to retreat! We needed less news and more peace and quiet. The wilderness was beckoning, so I checked the weather in the desert, and I saw that it would be clear and calm. Sharon was OK with my running off for the evening; she didn’t want to go this time because of the cold weather. The 10” telescope was loaded into the van along with some warm clothing, and, with Sharon’s help, some food and water. Feeling slightly guilty, I headed east just over 60 miles for a quaint little desert spot called Pioneertown.
Ah, freedom! But then, I wondered if I would somehow be disciplined for running away to enjoy nature at a time like this, and I prayed fervently for God’s blessing. Was I breaking the governor’s order for us to “shelter in place”? Perhaps, but I told myself I was practicing “social distancing” with the coyotes, far away from everyone. And, if this trip was successful, the rewards could be rich.
Just outside of Pioneertown is a nature preserve with lovely, unspoiled desert scenery where local astronomers are allowed to set up telescopes. I finally parked the van in a clearing beside the dirt road and turned off the engine. It was great just to sit quietly, thinking and praying. I didn’t want to travel all that distance to a beautiful place and just waste time. After all, one goes to the wilderness to see beauty and to take in as much of the glory of God as possible. After all, taking time to enjoy God’s glory in nature is not only encouraged; it is promised in Scripture (Psalm 19:1).
So what can you do in the desert on a cold night in early spring? I like to quietly watch and listen. Little birds rustled in the creosote bushes, coyotes yapped in the hills, and miles away, a dog barked. As the sun sank low in the sky, the distant eastern hills lit up a brilliant orange, then slowly faded to purple. Opposite the sunset I saw “Venus’s girdle” made by earth casting its deep blue shadow low in the eastern sky. The planet Venus shone brilliant white high up in the sky as other stars began to peek out in the twilight.
Seeing that evening planet, I remembered that Christians often neglect their God-given duty to seek out and appreciate beauty. Russ Ramsey stated that Christians often pursue truth and goodness, while neglecting beauty. Says Ramsey,
“We have a theological responsibility to deliberately and regularly engage with beauty, because our God, his creation, and his people are all beautiful” (Russ Ramsey, “The Danger of Neglecting Beauty,” Gospel Coalition, February 24th, 2018, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/danger-neglecting-beauty/ )
Beauty and glory are very closely related concepts in scripture. In the Mesopotamian desert, God told Abraham to see His covenant promises illustrated in the glory of the stars. When Moses was in the Sinai desert, he wanted God to show him His glory, His beauty. King David has one great desire in Psalm 27, to gaze upon God’s beauty in His temple. Many of his psalms direct our gaze to the beauty of the heavens (Psalm 8, 19, 89), and to the regular cycles of the heavens are proof of God’s everlasting covenant.
In Jeremiah 31, the “fixed order” of the sun, moon, and stars are given as God’s guarantee of His everlasting covenant. In that covenant, God forgives sins and remembers them no more, and all shall know the Lord. Beholding God’s glory and beauty are essential to worship, and He placed the stars there to bear witness to His faithfulness.
That night at Pioneertown, the best was yet to come. As the twilight faded away, the Milky Way became easily visible from horizon to horizon. Orion dominated the southern sky, with the Big Dog following him with his blazingly bright white star, Sirius. Orion’s nebula, M42, in the sword on Orion’s belt, was easily visible to the naked eye. I was getting cold, so I swung the telescope quickly towards many familiar galaxies and nebulae, and what show the sky put on! Bright galaxies in the Big Dipper, M81 and M82, and the big spiral, M51, were all showing cloudy, subtle, twisted shapes.
The gem of the night reminded me of my Adventist upbringing—M42 in Orion. As you may know, Ellen White had a vision where she told Joseph Bates that in Orion she saw the entry way to heaven and God’s throne. Bates believed that the nebula was the entrance to heaven even before he met Ellen and James in 1846. Over the years, a vast legend about the opening in Orion grew in Adventism around just two statements from Ellen White, with no scriptural support whatsoever. The real, intended lesson from the stars was eclipsed by that myth.
As for me, the Orion nebula is a glorious object in God’s creation that He placed there to show off His beauty. That night in the telescope, it glowed in soft hues of pale green and blue, with subtle hints of orange and lavender. Tiny stars sparkled in the cloud. I wish you could have been there to see it; that view alone made the trip worthwhile.
There were a couple of lessons to learn that night’ the first was not to feel guilty for fleeing from all the noise and suffering in our current crisis. The real lesson, though, was about a loving God who wants to show His true glory to His children who have eyes to perceive what He has made. We are all so small and foolish; we need regular doses of God’s glory to bring us back to worship and sanity. When we are anxious about our lives, our nation, and our loved ones, we know that God has made an everlasting covenant that cannot be broken. He has promised never to turn away from doing good for His children, with all His heart and soul (Jeremiah 32:40).
That night in Pioneertown, I was surprised and humbled by God’s beauty, refreshed with a new perspective. His glory is essential to our health, and the heavens are there to remind us of His greatest glory of all. The New Earth will shock us with endless beauty, but it will have no greater reward than to see the glory of Him who was pierced for us. That meeting is a certainty, for in John 17:24 He asked this of His Father:
“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”
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Martin, your account of the drive to the open view of the stars was so heart warming and reassuring. Thank you again for sparking memories of dark sky views and the boundless assurance from our creator of His nearness, if we pause to look away from fears of this planet’s decay. Warner