“Every time you look at the stars, it’s like opening a door. You could be anyone, anywhere. You could be yourself at any moment in your life. You open that door and you realise you are the same person under the same stars. Camping out in the backyard with your best friend, eleven years old. Sixteen, driving alone, stopping at the edge of the city, looking up at the same stars. Walking a wooded path, riding a rowboat, staring out the back window of a car, you’re eleven again. Out here where the world begins and ends, it’s like nothing ever stops happening.”
This quote made me realise something. I realised that we are looking at the same moon, the same stars and the same galaxy that visits other people all around the world. I know you’re probably thinking, “Um, thanks Captain Obvious!” but this time I really thought about it; and not just for five seconds. It is so difficult to fathom how incredibly huge our world is. There are so many people and not one of us is the same as another. Not even identical twins are the same. My fingerprint is different and unique to your fingerprint and I don’t know about you, but that does my head in. There are over 7 billion people on this planet and not one person leaves the same kind of inked-swirl on a page as I do. It blows my mind.
Next time when you are outside looking at the moon and the stars, remember that we share that same moon with every other person in the world. The same moon as those in Africa for example, that are starving and trying to fight poverty. Put yourselves in their shoes perhaps, because let’s face the facts: if you have food in your fridge, clothes that you can wear, a roof over your head and a place you can sleep tonight, you are richer than 75% of the world. Doesn’t that make you feel so blessed, yet so sad. When you look at the moon next, I encourage you to recognise the blessings you have. Recognise the fact that just because you simply have some money saved up in the bank, a few coloured notes in your wallet and some spare change lying on your bedroom floor, you are in the top 8% of the world’s wealthiest people. Thank God for these things you and I take for granted every day and pray that His love and light will overcome the darkness that is evident in other parts of the world; darkness that does not only exist at night.
14 “You are the light of the world.<sup class="crossreference" value="(A)”> A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.<sup class="crossreference" value="(B)”> 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others,<sup class="crossreference" value="(C)”> that they may see your good deeds<sup class="crossreference" value="(D)”> and glorify<sup class="crossreference" value="(E)”> your Father in heaven.” – Matthew 5:14-16
Keep smiling. x