Musing of the Stars

As I was writing a previous blog, something came to mind, a great analogy of sorts. But first let me tell you some sciencey things. About some awesome stars in our universe.

In science there is a thing called Gravitational Compression. That is when gravity compresses the mass of an object, reducing it in size, but increasing its density. In the life of a star, gravity begins to pull in and collapse molecules until fusion begins. In short, Gravitational Compression is what pulls the stars to start shining. Some stars, which are called main-sequence stars, like our very own sun, meet an equilibrium of sorts where the pressure of hydrogen to helium fusion and the pull of gravity balance out and the sun burns for millions of years until the hydrogen is nearly used up. The thermal pressure is reduced and at this end of the Sun's life, gravitational compression will turn it into a white dwarf.

"White dwarfs are thought to be the final state of all stars whose mass is not high enough to become a neutron star—over 97% of the stars in the Milky Way."

A white dwarf.

Sometimes the compression is greater than the fusion reaction and the star burns its fuel faster. This is usually found on stars much more massive than our own. They end their lives in a supernova. Then Gravitational Compression continues until the star is either a neutron star, or a black hole.

A neutron star variant called a Pulsar.

"Neutron stars contain 500,000 times the mass of the Earth in a sphere with a diameter of around 16 mi."

So what does this bit of science mean? A star, under extreme pressure can either turn into something really pretty cool, like a white dwarf star, or explode in glory as a supernova. Sometimes, if it is big enough, can even become a black hole, which is what keeps our whole galaxy together in its beautiful spiral across the vastness of space. We are about 25,000 light years away from our black hole (Sagittarius A*), and still can feel the effects of this wonderful creation.

If you really stop and think about life, and our will to serve God, we are very much like these stars. Sometimes we have so much pressure from our lives, that we feel compressed, feel like we are burning out, our personal light is fading and we cannot escape the coming end. These feelings come from things like stress and Depression. We feel like we cannot go any farther, we are finished, that God doesn't care anymore. But this is where we have a choice.

If you want to go out as a rather common way of stars, as a simple white dwarf, who will probably end up being consumed by a bigger, brighter star, you can chose to give up. You don't have to push anymore, just give in and let life run its course. Chose to be the 97%.

Or you can chose to live for God. The outcome is very similar your short story called Life, will end at the moment of your death. But what you turn into is drastically different. You can shine so bright, so powerful, that you can be seen hundreds even thousands of light years away as a bright burst of light in the darkness. You can be a supernova for God's glory, and be written, with a permanent role, into the greater story that is God's unending glory.

And sometimes, if we are lucky, we can be even more. When some stars die, they explode and leave behind large beautiful nebulae. In those pretty clouds of gas and debris, are all the elements that enable new stars to be born and maybe some planets. And each star born from the death of the last one, has yet another chance to shine so bright and beautiful. God uses the death of something beautiful to support and house things even more beautiful.

He can do it with you, and the best part that not even the stars are lucky enough to have, is we don't even have to die. You can be a nebula, a neutron star, or even a pulsar every day. God wants us all to be shinning and wonderful beacons of his eternal love. Some of us may die spreading God to the world, and those that do, you are so special and amazing. But this life, our story, is not our end. Ours has no end. Ours only has God and I can't think of anything better to have for forever.

God can and will use us in our most broken moments. Our most compressed times, which we must push with every ounce we have through them, God is ready to ignite our lives. And when we do ignite, every Christian should be striving and pushing for a chance to be that next nebula that God uses to produce even more stars to sing his glory.