More on the Stars

As I said, I've been looking at the stars lately. And after reading Witness of the Stars years ago, I have been fascinated by them. Often I have tried to tell others about the constellations but they have been such feeble attempts as expressing the wonder of it all. I have now become determined to begin to try to absorb this information so I can actually narrate it with some amount of intelligence, instead of fumbling around for bits and pieces of the story.

I posted last year about "my" mountains here and how they have been a place I go to gaze at God's wonderful creation and spend time with God. You can go to that post and see a tiny piece of the panoramic view.

This morning, as I was drawing my nighttime mountain scene with the constellations, I took out my books and started looking up the names of the stars in the constellations I had found. Back when I was reading Witness of the Stars, the part that really touched me and brought me to tears, was when I got to the information about the ship that brings it's passengers to the safety of the greater and lesser sheepfolds. I didn't remember which constellations they were in. This morning I found one and it's significance amazes me.

When I set my chair up facing the mountains (that scene in that older post) I look directly up to the sign of Cancer. The modern symbol is that of a crab but the ancient star meanings say nothing that would encourage that interpretation. Instead here is some of the ancient names and meanings of the stars in that group:

The Arabic name for this sign is Al Sartan - who holds or binds
The Denderah name is Klaria - cattle folds
Greek name is Karkinos - holding or encircling of which the latin word is Cancer
The Latin Cancer: Khan - travellers rest or in, and Cer is Arabic for circling

Some of the star names in this group are:
Tegmine - holding, Acubene - (Hebrew and Arabic) sheltering or hiding place, Ma'alaph - assembled thousands, Al Himarein - kids or lambs

In the center of this sign is a bright cluster of stars, of which the ancient name is Praesepe, which means a mulitutde, offspring.

This sign of cancer speaks of a protected resting place for the Lord's offspring, his sheep. A place where the travellers are brought safely home after all of the conflict is over. How amazing is that, that in the place I go to find rest in Him, I look directly up and see a sign of THE REST that is to come. A rest for God's people that has been planned since the beginning of time. A part of the story that God has had in the heavens, in plain view for thousands of years. Before there was His story in writing, he wrote it in the heavens.

He telleth the number of the stars,
He giveth them all their names.
Psalm 147:4