Starry, Starry Night

By Danny Talpesh

“When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.”—Matthew 2:10

Whenever I see or hear the phrase starry, starry night, my mind immediately races back to when my wife and I were dating. It wasn’t an unusual occurrence for my brother-in-law to bellow out the Josh Groban rendition of the song, “Vincent,” all throughout their house. The song begins with the phrase, “Starry, starry night,” and proceeds to paint (pun intended) a beautiful tribute and imagery to the life, work, and death of Vincent Van Gogh. 

Now, I’m not an art enthusiast or connoisseur by any means; in fact, that’s a world I very much take for granted and don’t appreciate nearly enough. On that note, I feel like many of us are like that with starry nights, as well.

I’ve heard people describe South Florida evenings as some of the most glorious on the planet. Unfortunately, all too many times, my extent of noticing the stars is when I take the garbage out after dinner.  After a long day, I like to step outside, take a deep breath, and just simply look up. No matter how crazy the events of the day have been, however, I get this overwhelming feeling of peace as I stand there by the side of my house gazing into the night sky.

In Matthew 2:1–11, the wise men—astrologers, or magi, from Babylon—are on their way to visit Jesus by following His star. I sometimes wonder how spectacular this star must’ve been to behold. Just think about it . . . a specifically situated celestial wonder crafted uniquely for the heavenly announcement of God’s coming to earth to save mankind, way bigger, better, and more majestic and spectacular than any baby announcement post you’ve ever seen on Instagram. Yet, to many, it may have barely been noticed as they went about their busy lives.  And in this, we learn a vital lesson: We have to purpose to look past the distractions and look up. 

Even though South Florida evenings can be beautiful, the stars are blocked by a thing called ambient light. In the simplest terms I can find, the city lights drown out the stars.  If we don’t determine to look up and past the ambient light, we’ll miss out on the beautiful display in the sky, and the same is true in life; the same is true in our relationship with Jesus! Hebrews 12:2 gives us this amazing reminder, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.” Similarly in Colossians 3:1–2, the apostle Paul encourages us with this instruction: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” It’s super easy to get distracted and consumed by our lives, for the ambient light of our circumstances and culture to drown out the beauty and blessings of Christ in our lives, especially in hard times. That’s why we have to make it a habit, be intentional, we have to look up and fix our eyes on the light of the world!

During this hectic holiday season, let’s commit to taking the time to look up and be in awe of the amazing nightly "light show display" the Prince of Peace has placed in plain sight just for us.

Questions for Reflection:

• What distractions keep you from looking to Jesus?
• How can you purpose to “look up” more often?