This week, my son Patrick and I drove up to Cherry Springs State Park in north central Pennsylvania. The park is mostly a big open field, but people go there from all over the world because it’s one of the few accessible places left that’s almost totally free of light pollution. It’s one of the best places in the world to see stars.

So, at age 68, I saw the Milky Way with my own eyes for the first time.

Even if it had been cloudy and we couldn’t see a thing, it was great to get away with my son. It was nice to do something “normal,” like a road trip, for a change.

In Genesis 15, God was talking with Abram, later Abraham, old and childless Abraham, the one God had chosen to father a new nation. He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars–if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:5-6).

We know a bit more than Abraham about the stars, but not that much more. We know what stars are; we know that the nearest one is over four light years away. But we don’t really know how many stars are in our own galaxy (100 to 400 billion), or how many galaxies there are (100 million to 2 trillion).

The God that engineered all that has told us that he’s mindful of us, loves us.   

This week the stars reminded me that God kept his promise to Abraham.

We can trust him too.