Our Sky

Last Saturday, wrapped safely in the arms of my best friend, I saw the most beautiful star gleaming through the twilight. The sparkling, perfectly-placed gem was all alone looking over the cold, lonely earth and I gazed back up at it with cold, lonely eyes. The few precious moments I was holding in my hands with the love of my existence was soon slipping away, and I would soon be alone as well in the huge, empty world. But before he left, he picked me up and held me high up and twirled me around and captured me in a long, wonderful hug. Over his shoulder, the amethyst horizon of the south had changed. Another star was shining in the great sky, sharing its prism of light with its distant lover to the north. If the first just waited a lonely while, the second would come to be with it. The thought was so poignant... 

Two are better than one...

The two stars are really not two stars. 

One is a star, and the other is a planet. 

Rigel is the sixth brightest star in our galaxy, the early debut with a lonely post high in the vast heaven. She is the daughter of Antares, the chief of all stars, and her name means "foot." Rigel is also knows as Orionis, and she is the left foot of the celebrated constellation Orion. She is the brightest star in the constellation and the most luminous star in the whole Milky Way. They call her a navigational star, because she is so easily located and uniquely placed, but more importantly - she is visible from the farthest reaches of all seven seas.

I thought that Venus would be the planet we saw, but it is actually Jupiter. Associated with the greatest gods of conquest in mythology, Zeus and Thor, it was named by the Romans originally after their god Jupiter and means "father of the sky." It is the fifth planet from the sun, but the largest in the whole solar system. It shines brightly, the third brightest celestial object in the night sky, rising into the heavens in sequence with the sun's setting. An amazing historical notation is that this planet and its mythological fame is mentioned in the book of Acts in relation to the Gentles in Ephesus. 

Rigel and Jupiter....

Star and planet....

Far apart and close together....

Perfectly set by God to share the fall of darkness into night.

I love you.

Your star,

Noelle