Meet 'Earendel'

A short item in the Kansas City Star caught my attention recently. It was titled: "Hubble detects 'Earendel,' most distant star ever seen." This star was part of a galaxy forming billions of years ago when everything in the world was brand new. This new star burned through space for billions of years before becoming visible through the Hubble Space Telescope.

This amazed me, that among the myriads of stars visible at night, a new star could be found. It shown with blue light and astronomers have found that it is 50 to 100 times larger than our sun, and about one million times brighter, with its light traveling 12.9 billion years to become visible to the telescope.

I am not a scientific-minded person usually, but this opened my eyes to look at the night sky a little more intently. I know I cannot see Earendel with the naked eye, but just to know it is beaming at us earthlings through so much space and time is comforting. It was a kind of God-moment, a realization that God sends his light through all the muddle and confusion most of us experience, that he chooses to reveal himself in mind-boggling ways.

It reminded me that I need to be more aware of the “God-moments” in my life, the times that God breaks through time and space to make himself known, to be light in my darkness. It might be through a book, a person, a homily, an encounter, a star. Even when we can’t see God, when he seems trillions of light years away, he is there like Earendel, shining on us, breaking through the obstacles that surround us.