#LiveLent daily reflections

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The Lord brought Abram outside and said, “Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them … So shall your descendants be.”

Genesis 15.1-6
15 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’ ²But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’ ³And Abram said, ‘You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir.’ ⁴But the word of the Lord came to him, ‘This man shall not be your heir; no one but your very own issue shall be your heir.’ ⁵He brought him outside and said, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ ⁶And he believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

To be able look up on a clear night sky and see the stars can take our breath away. The immensity of space that we see humbles us and enables us to glimpse a little of our immeasurable creator.

Abram (later renamed Abraham) couldn’t count the stars but believed that God’s promise to bless him and give him descendants would come to pass. Gazing at stars – so many we cannot count them – can remind us of God’s care, also beyond measure.

Make time this evening (or on the next clear night) to gaze at the night sky. Pause to reflect on how everything and everyone is bound to one another and to God.

Prayer for the week
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed thy hand hath provided —
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

From “Great is thy faithfulness”,
by Thomas Chisholm (1866–1960)

Gaze at the night sky tonight
With a parent or carer, spend some time tonight (or on the next clear night) enjoying the wonder and beauty of the night sky.

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Reflections from the Church House Publishing booklet #LiveLent: Care for God's Creation - A 40-Day Challenge inspired and informed by the Archbishop of Canterbury's 2020 Lent book Saying Yes to Life by Ruth Valerio (SPCK) are copyright 2020 The Archbishops’ Council and used here with permission. Full details of both resources are available on the Church of England website.

Bible readings are taken from The New Revised Standard Version (Anglicized Edition), copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved.