This isn’t my first experience overseas. When I was four years old, my family moved to Japan for two years. One of my favorite stories my mom tells is about the day we moved to Japan. Door to door, the move took about 24 hours. By the time my mom got to the doorstep of our new house in Japan, she was exhausted and overwhelmed by the all the new and different things. Right before she entered the new house, she looked up. There, right above our house, was the constellation Orion, the exact constellation you could see clearly from our house in Ohio. Immediately, she felt God speaking to her, “There is no place you can go that my presence will not follow you”. She was remined of Psalm 139:
“Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, You are there.
If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall lead me” (NKJV).
I have always been blown away by the beauty of the night sky. Looking up and seeing hundreds of stars glowing in their vast brilliance truly takes my breath away. Knowing that God knows the name and kind of every single star in every single galaxy, that the stars are the work of his FINGERTIPS, makes me stand in awe of his greatness. I had the privilege of growing up in the countryside of Ohio, where the glories of the night sky could be clearly seen on any clear night. In high school, I would get home from dance at 11pm at night, and every night, I would get out of my car, look up, and soak in the beauty of the stars for a few minutes. My favorite constellation is Orion, and every night during the winter, there it would be, standing in the exact same spot. It became a symbol for me of the constancy and the faithfulness of God. No matter how turbulent my life became, no matter how much change was going on, Orion was still the same, and therefore, my God was still the same and in control. Now, no matter where I travel, I always look for Orion. And everywhere I have gone so far, he’s been there, faithful and constant just like the Father.
When I first arrived in my country a few weeks ago, I looked up into the night sky, and I was reminded of my mom’s story. There aren’t a whole lot of stars where I am living, but we traveled to smaller city for a few days, and there I got the full beauty of the night sky. Sure enough, the stars are the same here as they are back home, and Orion was there, waiting for me. No matter how foreign or strange this new country may seem at first, the stars that God created will always be there. Even if I cannot see many stars in the city where I am living, I can still see a few. They remind me that my God does not change, even when my surroundings do, and his presence will go with me to the uttermost ends of the earth.