God, gods, and Stars

I walked outside tonight and the sky was filled with stars. It was a clear night, so we could see more than on a usual evening. The moon was bright, and there was a semi-cool wind blowing up our hill; it was beautiful. I began to think of everyone inside of their houses, watching tv and missing all of this beauty for Leno or Letterman. As I continued to enjoy the evening I began to understand how the ancient civilizations could worship the sun, moon, and stars: there were no televisions, internet, radio, or city lights to distract their attention from the beauty of the heavens. The lights of creation stole the show every single night. Watching falling stars burning to earth and countless brilliant lights begging for attention. Our culture of "knowledge" looks down on these long ago times with pomp and arrogance, "how could anyone worship hot gas and burning rock?", but I think we might be more ignorant than our predecessors. We may not worship hot gas and burning rock, but we worship people because they appear on tv screens every week. We worship hollywood stars (some might be full of hot gas). We believe in some way they are better than us because of money and looks; they are happier than us, more heroic than us; We buy all kinds of merchandise with their faces and names on them, and we buy bloody mouth tabloids to get the latest sexy details of their indecent exposures. The truth is that hollywood stars are nowhere as interesting as the stars above our heads. The true stars are billions of years old, it takes a stars light millions to billions of light years to reach us, and when one dies, what remains of its beauty is still traveling towards us long after it has expired. The psalmist said, "The heavens declare the glory of the Lord". Whenever I raise my eyes on a beautiful, clear night, I know exactly what he means. I worship God and not the stars, and escpecially not hollywood stars, but I can see why they ancients thought so highly of the beauty above their heads. TOTT