Of Stardust and Hope

Not a Sermon - Just a Thought, October 27, 2006

Before the “boom box” there was the cassette recorder. I had one in the early 80’s and I spent almost every Sunday afternoon lying on the green shag carpet in front of my parent’s console stereo recording my favorite songs from Casey Kasem’s America’s Top 40 radio show. He counted down the hits, delivered the “Long Distance Dedication,” and told stories about the music stars. He was the music minister and I was a true disciple, holding out to the very end of the show to hear his famous sign off line, “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars!”

Casey taught me how to hope with that line. I didn’t know anything about Jesus at that age and my life at home wasn’t always the greatest. Yet the unbridled optimism of Casey resonated in my soul and I believed that there was always something better out there if I could just keep reaching for the stars.

So you can see why it didn’t surprise me at all to read the scientific theory that the metals in our bodies come from the stars. According to scientists any metal heavier than iron (which makes up hemoglobin) was formed in a super nova. If this theory is true then virtually every atom in our bodies is from former stars and the dust of the ground from which God formed us in Genesis 2.7 must be stardust. I like to think that hope is our elemental human existence, our star dust DNA if you will, reaching for the heights of heaven despite the gravitational pull of life on this earth.

The Apostle Paul believed that our hopeful “reach for the stars” emerged from suffering. In Romans 5 he tells us how suffering leads to perseverance, perseverance to character, and character to hope. I believe that God has hardwired us to reach for the stars by instilling us with hope to live life fully. And it is Jesus’ life and death and resurrection which have instilled within us the hope to live eternally. I say all that to say that if you are reaching for the stars, however that looks in your life, despite setbacks and disappointments, then you are living out of hope.

So, the next time a dark situation besets you, hold on to God and hold on to hope. And when someone asks you how you made it through you can tell them, “It was in my stars.”