I Believe

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and all that is seen and unseen.

When I stand under the night sky in Montana, I can see thousands of stars. The stripe of the Milky Way makes an arc over my head, and shooting stars go off like fireworks.

But for every star I can see, there are infinitely more up there, beyond the reach of human eyesight. One night last summer, God revealed a taste of the unseen, a sneak peek of his glory and greatness through a camera lens and some simple editing software.

I had been taking night sky photos for a couple months at this point, so I knew where to point my camera to have the best chance of catching a few shooting stars. That night I set up my tripod, took a few shots into the darkness, and headed inside.

This is what my human eyes could see:

It’s dark, right? I could see the outline of the trees and a few stars. But as I maneuvered the editing buttons on my computer, this is what I saw.

My heart caught in my throat as my hand flew up to my mouth.

There is no fancy editing here. To be honest, I’m not a good enough photo editor to add these colors, and I wasn’t even using Photoshop. I simply revealed what was already there. These stars, these colors, the shooting star had been right in front of my eyes. I just couldn’t see them through my human lens.

God reminded me in this moment that he is always there, even when I cannot see him clearly. He is right in front of me, right beside me, right above me, and if I will choose to look through the lens of faith, he will come into focus.

He is here. In brilliant colors. Power, beauty, splendor, glory and greatness all around us.

Look up, dear ones. Look up and see the heavens declaring the glory of God. Take notice of the sky proclaiming his handiwork.

He is here.

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and all that is seen and unseen.

*****

This post was inspired by the new “I Believe” study available now on the IF:Gathering app.