day 148: star light, star bright...

I learned something very new today.

That's a big deal, since I'm still on my summer hiatus.

The girls twisted my arm ever so slightly, and we headed downtown yet again today, to the Children's Museum. And thanks to our membership, it wasn't a big deal. They wanted to see a new exhibit that opened since we were there last a few weeks ago.

When we got there, I, for some reason, steered them to the planetarium. In all our years of frequenting that museum, we've never ventured into that domed part of the building. Just never have. Yet today we did. And it was there, in that darkened room, in a tilted back seat, that I learned the something new: the north star.

No, I knew about the north star before. Even knew that it's fancy schmancy name is Polaris. And I knew that you could always find the north star, since it was the brightest one in the nighttime sky, and hence, it was a good way to orient yourself in case you're lost at night. I thought that was plenty of knowledge about just one star.

What I found out today was that I was right about all those other parts. But there is more. The north star never, ever moves. It's always, always a constant. And all the other stars in the night sky circle around that one star, slowly, over time and the passing of seasons. Admist the chaos of the earth and the planets turning and moving and everything in this entire galaxy doing what God ordered it all to do, the north star stays put. It's always there, unmoving, steady. Focus yourself on it, and you know what direction you were heading in, and in what direction you need to take.

When I heard this, my mind had to stop there, as if I had heard something so profound that I needed a few more minutes to process it completely.

Google has lots to say about the north star. Over 67 million things, actually. And a whole galaxy full of things have "north star" in their title--a media company, a Christian academy, a financial consulting firm, a well drilling business--and those are just a few of the things here in Indy alone. Anyone can easily make good marketing sense of why a business would want this famous star in their name. I'm sure one could make many connections with the north star and big, important, guiding things in their lives.

But here's what my mind connected when it was letting all the new info sink in and marinate today (but brace yourselves, because it sounds a tad bit cheesy, too): it's my Aaron that is my very own north star.

He is my constant. Regardless of what other chaos is spinning around me, around us, he is there, and he is steady, and he can be relied upon. The seasons of life come and go, but he is still there. Pointing me in the right direction, sometimes when I thought I knew which direction was the one to take.....but it wasn't. Helping to align me, giving me a focus.

(except for a while now, much longer than usual, my night sky has been clouded over, making that north star awfully hard to see)