Stargazing (A Short Story)

   
 The sound of something dropping woke her up abruptly.

“Mia?” Jessie asked in a tired voice.

“Sorry.” Her roommate said, picking her hairbrush back up.

“What time is it?”

“4:02 am.”

Jessie groaned and rolled back over in bed.

“Hey Jessie?”

“What?”

“I have an idea.”

Jessie turned back towards Mia. They had been roommates in college and after graduating they got an apartment together, to save on living expenses. Mia was very spontaneous, so when she said she had an idea, Jessie didn’t know what to expect.

“What?” She managed, ready to go back to sleep.

“Let’s go stargazing.”

Jessie opened her eyes to find her friend looking completely serious.

“Come on. Throw some clothes on and we can go through the drive through of McDonald’s and get some ice cream cones. Let’s drive somewhere to look at the stars.”

“Why?” Jessie asked. She enjoyed getting at least seven hours of sleep each night.

“It’ll be fun. It’ll be an adventure!” Mia exclaimed. “Come on, please?”

“It’s Friday night, I want to sleep.”

“Exactly! Tomorrow, or should I say today, neither of us have work. We can come back and sleep. It’ll be fun.” Mia replied.

She hesitated for a moment, but consented. “Fine.” Why she let Mia talk her into things like this she’d never know.

“I’m going to go get dressed, you do the same.” With that Mia disappeared to her own room and left Jessie in the darkness alone.

Jessie pulled herself out of bed, turning on the lamp beside her bed. She was already wearing black athletic pants and a t-shirt that would suffice so she just grabbed her favorite green sweatshirt out of her closet, pulling it over her head. She brushed her black hair and pulled it into a messy bun. After tugging on her tennis shoes she grabbed her phone. Feeling more asleep than awake she stumbled out of her room and into the main room of their apartment where the living room, kitchen, and eating area were all in one combined space.

Mia appeared from her own room, wearing exercise pants like Jessie, along with a baggy blue cardigan over a white t shirt that said “Thankful” across it. Her red curly hair was brushed and contained by the gray baseball cap on her head. She grinned at Jessie. “Ready?”

Jessie mustered up a weary smile and gave a thumb up. They exited their apartment, locking it behind them. They walked down to where Mia’s car waited. Mia sat in the driver’s seat while Jessie clambered into the passenger’s side. True to her word, Mia got them both ice cream cones before driving away from the city lights.

“Where exactly are we going?” Jessie asked before licking her vanilla ice cream cone again.
“My brother and his family live near here. They own three acres. We’re going to go to the field at his house.”

“How did you come up with this idea? And why were you in my room?”

“Well,” Mia began, “I just thought this would be fun to do. Anyways, I love car rides at night. I was in your room because I accidently left my hairbrush in there.”

“And that occurred to you at four a.m.?”  Jessie yawned.

“Well I woke up and that’s when the idea came to me. I went to wake you up when I saw my hairbrush so I picked it up but dropped it and that’s when you woke up.” She explained.

Jessie nodded absentmindedly, glancing out of the window. Behind them Boston’s city lights in the distance still shone brightly, as if proclaiming to the sleepy world it was there. In front of them the road stretched on for miles, trees alongside it. There were other cars on the interstate as well, Jessie couldn’t help, but wonder what those people were doing at 4:30 in the morning. Maybe they were going off to stargaze as well.

They arrived at Mia’s brother’s land at five. Instead of heading to the sleeping house in the distance Mia drove to the open field. She climbed out of the car and Jessie followed suit. Mia threw a blanket onto the ground and they lay down, facing the open expanse of sky.

Twinkling stars shining in the sky were proof that not everything where they were was asleep. Unlike in Boston, where they could only see a few stars, thousands of stars were visible in the navy blue sky. The sky was slowly becoming a deep purple, preparing itself for the sun appearing.

“Thank you.” Jessie whispered after they’d been looking at the sky for a while.

“For what?” Mia asked.

“For dragging me out of bed. This is nice. It’s peaceful out here.”

“Indeed it is.” Mia agreed. “It’s gorgeous.”

It was a perfect night for stargazing.

Not just a feeling...

It's the feeling you get when you first get saved, or after coming back from a church camp, or maybe some Sunday morning.... It's the feeling that makes you feel loved, it makes you feel safe, secure, and you can feel God. But what happens a day after that fades away? Or a month? Or a year? Are we supposed to live on some feeling?

No.

When I look at the Bible and what it says about following Jesus I see nothing that says "hey follow Me and you'll have a 'spiritual high' your whole life'". No. Here's what I see in scriptures about following Jesus:

Matthew 4:19, "'Follow me,' he told them, 'and I will make you fish for people.'"

Matthew 16:24, "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.'"

John 12:26, "If anyone serves me, he must follow me. Where I am, there my servant also will be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him."


Sometimes we go through time were we just don't feel God with us, or we don't feel like we're learning about God. And we use that as an excuse not to follow Him.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with feelings. God has given us personalities, emotions, and feelings. But there is a time and place for everything. Our relationship with God shouldn't be based on simply a feeling.

Take your sibling for example (or one of your parents or close friend if you don't have a sibling). Your relationship with them isn't simply based on a feeling. No matter what, deep down you always love them and they remain your sibling/parent/friend.

A relationship based solely on a feeling and nothing else isn't a relationship worth having. It should go deeper than that. I'm not saying you're going to have a concrete, unbreakable, rock solid relationship with everyone that comes your way.

But you should with God.

I was thinking recently about the subject and I realized I can't follow Jesus based solely on a feeling. If I did I would only be following Jesus part of the time. Even when I don't feel like it I need to be seeking Him and serving Him and following Him.


Something that we, who are in Christ, need to remember is that we have the Holy Spirit of the Living God dwelling inside of us. He doesn't leave. He remains. Even if you don't feel like He's in you He is.

1 Corinthians 6:19, "Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God?"

Let's follow God no matter what. Not just when we feel like it but always.


~~~

What are your thoughts on the subject?

John 10:27, "My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me."

Eternal

Hebrews 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."

So I was going to do a second post on holiness this week.... but God had different plans.

Sometimes we think of God, thinking about the Old Testament, we think of Him as holy, righteous, and having righteous anger. When we think of God, with the New Testament in mind, we think of Him as full of grace, mercy, and love. When we think of God, looking at our own lives, we often think of Him as maybe our best friend, or maybe distant, someone we pray to.

This cannot be.

There isn't a God of the Old Testament and a God of the New Testament and a God of today. God simply is.

Jeremiah 10:10, "But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and eternal King."

He's eternal. Eternal is a state of being, it means He cannot change.

In the Old Testament, in the New Testament, and between then and now God remains. He existed before time and He exists in the future. God is outside of time. Time doesn't even apply to Him.

I've been reading Mere Christianity by C.S Lewis (highly recommend by the way) and he talks about this some. I think he words it excellently.
Here are some quotes from the chapter "Time and Beyond Time".....

"God is not hurried along in the Time-stream of this universe any more than a author is hurried along in the imaginary time of his own novel."

"But God, I believe, does not live in a Time-series at all. His life is not dribbled out moment like ours: with Him it is, so to speak, still 1920 and already 1960. For His life is Himself."

"But God has no history. He is to completely and utterly real to have one."

Since God is eternal and time doesn't apply to Him, I think it's only reasonable to assume that He couldn't have existed differently in the Old Testament and differently now. In fact, as Hebrews 13:8 states, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

God is loving, merciful, full of grace, compassionate, He has righteous anger, He's perfect, He's holy, He's pure, He's eternal..... the list goes on!

1 Samuel 15:29, "Furthermore, the Eternal One of Israel does not lie or change his mind, for he is not man who changes his mind."

He's eternal. He's the same forever. If He wasn't eternal He wouldn't be God!

Last week we talked about how we should praise Him for being holy. Well let's also praise Him for being eternal.


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Let's talk....

What are your thoughts on God being eternal? Have you ever read Mere Christianity by C.S Lewis? What's one of your favorite things about God?

I hope y'all have a great week and let's strive to remember to praise God!

Holy

Psalm 77:13, "God, your way is holy. What god is great like God?"


Holiness.

When you think of that word do you feel intimidated, fearful, disinterested, or maybe something else?

We don't seem to talk a lot about holiness, and about how God is holy. Yes, He's full of grace and we know He's holy. But what does that even mean?

Holy means pure, sacred, set apart, inspiring fear or awe.

But we seem to treat the word holy one of two ways. Either we don't talk about it since the subject can be intimidating, or we throw the word around casually.

God is holy. Yes, He's full of grace, but He still remains holy.

Psalm 24:3, "Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?"


God is holy. What can we do? How can we approach Him?

God is perfect, pure, He has no flaw. How can we have a relationship with Him?

Romans 3:10, "As it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one."

We aren't good. We aren't righteous. No one is.

Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Wait... back up a second. First it says no one is righteous, now it says we are? These verses aren't contradicting themselves. We on our own can never be righteous. It is through faith by grace in Christ that we are declared righteous.

When God, who is holy, looks at us He doesn't see our sin. Our sins have been covered by the blood of Jesus.

Galatians 3:27, "For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ."

1 John 1:7, "If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin."


Now, before I move on, I want to emphasize on something first. Jesus died on a cross for our sins (Hebrews 9:22. 24-28) and on our own we cannot be saved. It is only through Jesus that we can come to the Father (John 14:6).

Romans 10:9-13, " If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."


God is holy. Because He is holy we should revere Him as such. His name is holy (Psalm 30:4). Since His name is holy we shouldn't take His name in vain.

We shouldn't treat God too casually. Yes, last week I talked about abiding in Him. But while we do abide in Him (or should abide in Him) then we still need to remember He is holy and pure and perfect. He's the one and only God.

The picture at the top of this post is of the last part of the sunset I saw the other evening. The God who created that deserves our praise.

We are to honor God, praise Him, and stand in awe of Him. He's amazing. How can we not honor, praise, and be in awe of Him?


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Let's talk...

What comes to your mind when you think about holiness? What's your favorite verse about holiness? What's one of your favorite attributes of God? Any other thoughts on holiness?


Luke 1:73-75, "He has given us the privilege, since we have been rescued from the hand of our enemies, to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness in his presence all our days."

Abide

Happy 2019!! It's hard to believe another year as come and gone. Mostly it's gone by in a blink of an eye. Wow... 2019. It's going to take a while to get used to saying that.

Sometimes people choose a word of the year. I started thinking about it and I keep coming back to the word abide. I shared some about it in last week's post but I wanted to share some more about it.

Abide means to remain, stay, continue, dwell, reside, remain faithful and steadfast, or to continue in a relationship. Christ invites us to abide in Him.

What does scripture say about abiding in Christ?

John 15:4 (ESV), "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me."

We can abide in Jesus, and He in us. We can't do this on our own. We need Him.

John 15:9 (ESV), "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love."

Wow, abide in His love.

1 John 4:13(ESV), "By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit."

In Acts 1:8, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

John 14:26, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you."

The Holy Spirit dwells within us - abides in us.


I think that sometimes when we think about being best friends with God, or having Him as our Heavenly Father, or being co heirs with Christ our human minds get blown. I mean why should we, mere humans, be able to be friends with the King of kings?

But the Bible talks about something so much deeper than just friendship.

Abiding in Christ. What does that even mean?

Remaining in Jesus. Staying in Jesus. Dwelling in Him. Residing in Him. Remaining steadfast and faithful to Him. Continuing in a relationship with Him.

And the Bible also says that God abides in us.

God remains in you. He stays in you. He dwells in you. He resides in you. He remains steadfast and faithful. He continues in a love relationship with you.

Wow. That is so mind boggling to me.


The picture of abiding in God and He in us such a strange thing to think about. It's more personal, real, and vulnerable than any other relationship I could ever have.


This next year, 2019, let's strive to abide in Christ.

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Let's talk....

Do you have a word of the year? Do you have any goals for 2019? Are you looking forward to this next year?

Side note: I know that my blogging schedule has been a bit off these past few weeks, but I'm going to try to get back on track this Tuesday. :)