Look Up!
Dr. Jeremy Godwin
Many of the stories of the season draw our attention to the skies. Our Gospel reading for the First Sunday of Advent this year begins, “Jesus said, ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars…’” (Luke 21:25) Then at Christmas, we look to the skies with the shepherds as the angels announce the birth of Jesus. The sounds of the season do the same with hymns like “Lo! He comes with clouds descending” or “Creator of the stars of night.” Today’s Psalm also turns our eyes heavenward: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you have set in their courses.” (Psalm 8:4). Clearly, we’re meant to look up!
On the one hand, it makes sense. The skies or “heavens,” after all, have long been associated with God. It’s difficult to imagine many scenes more beautiful than a crystal-clear night sky. If you can get away from as much artificial light as possible, it’s remarkable how bright the moon and the stars appear. And it’s not just the night sky. I love watching the sky be transformed with the colorful palette of sunrise or sunset. Looking up often puts things in perspective, reminding us of our relatively smallness.
And I think it’s precisely this perspective that we get in the next verse of the Psalm:
What is man that you should be mindful of him?
the son of man that you should seek him out? (Psalm 8:5)
I’ll admit, I appreciate how this idea is expressed as a question. Sometimes looking up fills me with awe, but sometimes it makes me feel alone. The grandeur of God can sometimes be overwhelming. So, it’s with amazement that the psalmist acknowledges that given the vastness of the universe, God not only thinks of us, but God also seeks us out. Here is where Advent begins.
We look up in Advent to look for signs of God’s coming. Far from the intention of emphasizing the distance between us and God, Advent is the season when the distance begins to narrow, until it is finally closed completely on Christmas. The finite and the infinite, the temporal and the eternal, the human and the divine are forever joined as God comes to dwell among us in the form of a little child, Jesus Christ, our Savior. This is perhaps the most awe-inspiring thing of all!
