A Star Shines Tonight

"And lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, 'till it came and stood over where the young child was." Matthew 2:2

   Was it really a star? 
   I asked Ken Poshedly, a Snellville resident who serves on the board of directors for the Atlanta Astronomy Club. (www.atlantaastronomy.org )
   "The science of astronomy, that is, the serious study of the universe beyond our Earth's atmosphere, is only several hundred years old and developed from astrology, that is the belief that the future can be foretold by noting where sky objects appear," Poshedly said.
   The Magi, from whom we get the word "magic", were employed by the rulers of their countries to study the sky and interpret what they saw. Some events always followed the appearance of certain stars. For example, Poshedly said, when Sirius, the Dog Star, was closest to the sun, the Nile River would flood. 
   "Scientists say there was no one Christmas star, and even if there had been, it could not have moved and led the Magi to the manger. For those who believe that science and religion must agree, modern-day astronomers have shown that it was not a star, but a series of close groupings of planets. This grouping appeared within a few years of Jesus' birth year and could have been interpreted as a very special sky object, or 'star' by the ancients who knew nothing of planets,"  Poshedly said.
   The Magi interpreted this phenomenon as a sign of something special, but they were led to the Child, not by a physical sign, but by their faith. 
   But now scientists have opened up a whole new world of what is and what could be. With the advent of quantum physics, books like Hawking's "A Brief History of Time", Greene's "The Elegant Universe" and Ross' "Beyond the Cosmos" present proof of higher dimensions. 
   Astro-archeologist John Charles Webb, Jr.( www.templeofsolomon.org ) expresses the need to look beyond our earthy limits by saying, "Contemporary science looks to the animal kingdom to search for our roots, while the secrets of the High Priests return us to the stars." 
   To explore God greatness, we must look beyond- and believe beyond-the dimensions within which we are bound, like those stereogram pictures that are visible only to those who let themselves look beyond the two dimensions in which they are printed.
   Maybe, in a higher dimension, there really was a star and the Magi really saw it. But even scientists proved this to be true, atheists would still dismiss it, agnostics still doubt it and intellectuals still debate it. 
   Einstein said, "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
   I don't care what judgment anyone else makes on the mysteries of God's universe. Tonight I will turn my eyes to the sky. And for me, a star will shine.

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