My grandmother told me stories about the cosmos that connect to both my life and faith. They are ancient stories and have a wealth of spiritual healing and significance. The Bible tells us that on Day 4 of creation, “God made the two lights – the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night – and the stars” (Genesis 1:16). I guess the writer was talking about the sun and moon. The sun is the most massive object in our solar system and contains over 99% of the mass of the solar system. The sun is a star and is huge. The sun is in the centre of our flag. It gives us warmth and life. The sun is brighter than 90% of the stars in our Milky Way. God told Abraham, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be” (Genesis 15:5). “Just as the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will increase the offspring of my servant David, and the Levites who minister to me” (Jeremiah 33:22). It took millennia to catch up on the numbers of stars this verse is alluding to in the Bible. Early astronomers could only see 3,000 stars in their time. Galileo could see 30,000 stars, but modern telescopes, like Hubble and James Webb, can see trillions of galaxies with trillions of stars. In the New Testament we see the mention of a star that led the Wise Men to the birthplace of Jesus. We find in Matthew 2 the words, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” 46
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