Not So Starry Night

You can learn a lot of things while standing in a church parking lot for half an hour. For example, I learned that the coffee here has so much sugar in it that I actually like it. I learned that, even in Argentina, winter means cold which means wear a coat. And I learned that gypsies are still around, and they look just like regular people (except at their church where they wear long skirts and weird hair ribbons, but that’s another story).

This weekend, as I stood in line to go into the giant church I’ve been attending, I saw something I’d yet to see in Buenos Aires: stars. Now I’m sure when you hear the word “stars,” you think of a beautiful night sky speckled with millions of tiny golden lights. I absolutely love nights like that (you can ask my friend, Nathaniel…star gazing is one of my top ten favorite things), but that’s not what I saw when I looked up past the tall, crumbling buildings with peeling paint and broken windows. The sky was instead a hazy dark blue, and just a handful of stars were visible. Five to be exact.

As I thought about it, I realized that those five lonely stars were something special. While they might not seem as magnificent as a night in Ojojona, Honduras or even Lexington, Virginia, these five were the only stars shining brightly enough to be seen through all the smog and lights of the city.

Think about it. How hard is it for a star to shine in the middle of nowhere where there are no buildings, no cars, no factories, no lights, no pollution, no nothing? There are no hindrances to their light, and if for some reason they get shy or nervous (which I don't imagine they do, but you never know...), there are a million other stars nearby demonstrating how easy it is to shine.

The five stars twinkling over Buenos Aires were different, though. While so many things could hinder them, their light was bright in the darkness. They shone when the others around them grew dim, even invisible. These five stars were faithful to shine no matter what. And that’s how I want to be.

“…become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.” Phil 2:15b-16a