Even Wise Men Need A Star

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I was out running at 05:45 this morning and was pleased to find dry conditions after a couple of soakings earlier in the week. Chilly, but dry. In fact as I left the street lit village I looked upwards to discover there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, my path illuminated by the harvest moon and a blanket of stars. I was surrounded by total silence as I plodded to the halfway point and prepared to turn for the homeward journey.

This started with a climb back up into the village. High above, front and centre, was a star I hadn’t noticed on the first leg of my run. In fact, with my incredibly limited astronomy, I’m fairly certain it was a planet. Venus, if I’m not mistaken, but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. It looked as if it was hovering high above my house in case I took a wrong turn or stumbled into the ditch and needed rescuing.

I was somewhat awestruck by this sight which made the effort of crawling out from under the covers all the more worthwhile. I immediately thought back to the Wise Men who were guided by a similar bright light in the sky, millennia ago and halfway across the world. It guided them away from their homes though, towards a little stable in Bethlehem. To their spiritual home where a child was born who would change the world forever.

I didn’t set out to write a spiritual post today. I have a faith, but am no fan of organised religion or the political and moral stance taken by many churches. Many Christians I have encountered on my personal journey have appalled me with their arrogance and hypocrisy. I know I’m not a wise man, I’m far from it. But it’s comforting to cling to the belief that I’m being guided by a higher power who looks down upon me, through the good times and the bad.

Published by Fractured Faith Blog

We are Stephen and Fionnuala and this is our story. We live in Northern Ireland, have been married for 17 years and have three kids - Adam, Hannah and Rebecca. We hope that our story will inspire and encourage others. We have walked a rocky road yet here we are today, together and stronger than ever. We are far from perfect and our faith has been battered and bruised. But an untested faith is a pointless faith. Just as a fractured faith is better than none at all. We hope you enjoy the blog.

36 thoughts on “Even Wise Men Need A Star”

  2. I love the stars, they’re just one reason I refuse to live in a big city. As I sit in our back deck I see Jupiter each night. Our boys have an app on their iPad that they absolutely love, they simply point the camera at a star and it tells them which star (or planet or satellite) they are gazing at. It’s so fascinating, I could sit out there for hours looking up each one 🙂

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  4. Fantastic post ! That star you saw was probably a planet, it was Mars most likely. Because of how we, and Mars rotate around the sun every 2 years and 2 months (approx) an event happens called opposition, the two planets line up so that Mars is on the exact opposite side of Earth from the Sun.

    Thats about to occur so Mars will be very bright every morning until approx the end of Oct.

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    1. Beautiful post, S&F. I love early morning. Stay safe out there in the dark, though!

      ephesians413! I have a blog I called UNITY413 for that same scripture. I don’t post to it much anymore because I started a different one here on WordPress. Also my Twitter handle is UNITY413, but I seldom post anything on Twitter.

      https://unity413.blogspot.com/

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  16. You manage to capture the idea you’re aiming to very succinctly Stephen. There is a destination we are going, and sometimes we can’t see it, but it is definitely the if we follow the guidance.

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