Thursday, September 11, 2014

Brightness Amidst the Darkness



Who didn't love the evening sky, the round shining Moon, and those bright little stars? But while you were gazing at those glitters across the sky, have you noticed one or two "unnaturally-bright stars"? You might have wondered what these super bright objects are, and these might be quasars!

Have you heard of the term "quasar"? It was first discovered in the early 1960's, and due to lack of modern technology at that time, a Chinese-born U. S. astrophysicist Hong-Yee Chiu just coined the name "quasar", and he described it as:

"So far, the clumsily long name 'quasi-stellar radio sources' is used to describe these objects. Because the nature of these objects is entirely unknown, it is hard to prepare a short, appropriate nomenclature for them so that their essential properties are obvious from their name. For convenience, the abbreviated form 'quasar' will be used throughout this paper."
Wikipedia described these as:

"Quasars (/ˈkweɪzɑr/) or quasi-stellar radio sources are the most energetic and distant members of a class of objects called active galactic nuclei (AGN). Quasars are extremely luminous... Their luminosity can be 100 times greater than that of the Milky Way."

However, there had been a controversial scientific discovery in the early 1980's. Didn't you know that this super radiant object is actually not bright all by itself? And what was so shocking is that what had been causing its brightness was, in fact, a super dark material (actually the darkest existing matter) - a blackhole!

It might be so hard to accept that at first, but didn't you know that in life, the darkest of moments could bring out the most radiant character in you? That is, once your life had been surrendered to Jesus Christ. All by ourselves, we only tend to make selfish, stubborn, and destructive decisions. We were inclined to make sinful decisions due to our sinful nature. As Romans 3:11-12 says:

"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside;  together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

But by God's great mercy and grace, Jesus Christ made a way for our reconciliation with God when He died on the cross, was buried, and was risen again after three days! And everyone who believes on Jesus, surrenders his life, and turns away from his sinful ways, is reconciled with God! God's light will shine upon him in such a way that others will be seeing the positive changes in his life. As 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 says:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation."

My friend, you might have been experiencing the darkest nights in your life: heartbreaking relationships, frustrating failures, discouraging disappointments, shattered dreams, or ruined plans. But please know that even during these times, God's light never dims out. His grace is still sufficient no matter how hurting and painful your situation might be. He knows you more than you know yourself, and He longs for you to seek Him with all of your heart.

Friend, remember, the stars shine the brightest in the darkest night! Look unto Jesus, the ultimate source of this light.

© 2014 Erickson Ibana

Image can be found at http://www.boomsbeat.com/articles/482/20140219/look-up-night-sky-enjoy-stars-photos.htm