3 things in the sky

On the way to work this morning I saw 3 things in the sky. I saw 2 stars that were bright enough to still be seen in the predawn light of a March 31st morning.

Those two “stars” turned out to be Saturn and Venus.

The third thing I saw was so brief and so unusual I’m not really sure I saw it. I was driving in a SE direction and I saw a bright orange light. It looked like a chunk
Of paper flying, like when an ember gets lifted out of a fire by the heat, but it was falling. It was only there for a second. My copilot Steve Selig didn’t see it at all.

Matthew 14 tells us about the end of John the baptists ministry.

“14 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the reports about Jesus, 2 and he said to his attendants, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”

3 Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, 4 for John had been saying to him: “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered John a prophet.

6 On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for the guests and pleased Herod so much 7 that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. 8 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” 9 The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted 10 and had John beheaded in the prison. 11 His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. 12 John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.”

Johns place in the life of Jesus is so important yet so brief, it’s like that orange light I saw. It’s over before you can say “look over there!”

The time it took to do his job isn’t as important as the fact that he did the Job. He pointed the people to Jesus.

Ephesians 2:10 says that once we become believers in Jesus, we have a to do list to get done. I want so bad to see the entire list but God in his wisdom gives us one task at a time. Sometimes we may get a couple at a time but we don’t get to see the whole thing.

One thing we all have on the list is to go and make disciples, to tell our story of how Jesus has met us in our need and how he changed us.

I mentioned 3 things I saw. One was bright and brief. Two were bright and steady. Jesus is like that bright and steady light. He made the planets, hung them in the heavens. He died to pay for our sins and he rose from the dead to give us life, eternal life. Longer than the life of a planet.

I wrote this March 31, 2017. On this March 31st 2020 my commute is from my kitchen to my basement. I am working from home during the Covid 19 pandemic. The world changed almost overnight yet Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever.