The Same Sky

Abraham is taken outside and told to look up.

“Number the stars if you are able to number them… So shall your offspring be.”
(Genesis 15:5)

In his lifetime he cannot finish the count. That is the point. The promise is larger than the man contemplating the night through the years.

The same lights illuminated Galilee’s sky. The apostles worked that water at night under the same tapestry. The One who was promised to Abraham stands on the shore and says, “Follow Me.” The sky has not been replaced. The word has come near.

Today, the sky remains as it was.

The offspring was never only the first man who looked up, and never only the Twelve who left the nets. The promise runs on, to us.

And the counting is still not done. His descendants could not finish it. We cannot finish it. Even our computers cannot finish it. We are still looking up at more than we can number.

That is how large the word was. That is how large it remains.