the cosmic lighthouse: Matthew 2

read Matthew 2.  Three men won the Nobel Prize in physics for calculating that the universe is being blown apart by a mysterious force called dark matter.  Their calculations required finding a cosmic lighthouse, or standard candle, from which to make their measurements.  The cosmic lighthouses are a kind of supernovae formed by the explosion of small stars known as white dwarves.

Separately, other astronomers recently claimed that the moon is shrinking.  Its surface is showing signs of cosmic stretch marks.  The astronomers speculate that the moon’s core, once thought to be dead, may actually be alive.  “It’s not your grandfather’s moon anymore,” as one scientist puts it.

So if the moon is shrinking, stars are exploding, and the universe is being blown apart, why is it not possible that 2000 years ago, three astrologers followed a star that rose in the east and “went before them until it came and stood over the place where the young Child was.”  Matt. 2:9 (Amplified Bible).  The only thing that is constant, we often hear said, is change.

And yet we all need a constant.  We need a plumbline.  We need, as the Nobel winning astronomers did, a cosmic lighthouse.  We need a standard candle, by which all other things can be measured.

In the story of the wise men’s determination and Joseph’s obedience, we see men who used only God as their lighthouse.  If the maker of the universe is your standard, you need not fear if the stars explode, the moon disappears, or the universe blows up.  God will protect you with the tenderness of a mother for her newborn child, with the tenderness of Mary for her newborn baby, Jesus.  And trusting and obeying Jesus, will lead you out of the darkness and into an eternal light that no sun moon or stars can extinguish.


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