Published October 20, 2016

"Stars I Shall Find"


When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. ~ Psalm 8:3-5


The Holts did not really practice any religion, but they thought and talked about spirituality on occasion. Over dinner they discussed the nuanced relationships between religion, science, and magic. Sam refused to see them as mutually exclusive. He pointed to the great scientists of history: plenty of theologians and religious leaders had made scientific breakthroughs, with no fear that science would lessen their belief in God or vise versa.

The Bible was a book that astronauts often brought on long-term missions. The Jewish and Christian astronauts made more use of it than anyone else, particularly on their respective sabbaths, but even the atheists, agnostics, and people of other faiths sometimes picked it up out of curiosity (a common trait in scientists).

It was on one of these trips that Sam began to read the Bible in his free time. He was drawn to it partly because two books in the canon bore his name. He wanted to know exactly who this other Samuel had been.

Sam came to respect the prophets and apostles who persevered in sharing the revelation they received. A prophet was someone who loved truth and tried to make it known to other people, even—especially—when they did not want to hear the truth. Sam sometimes wondered if this meant scientists were prophets of a sort. Both scientists and theologians had to exercise reason, grapple with facts and theories, contemplate the complexity of the universe.

Some books in the Bible even had verses that forbade worship of stars and planets and the practice of divination. Though they had by no means been men of science, Sam respected the ancient writers for recognizing what their contemporaries did not, that the celestial bodies themselves were not conscious beings and did not exert control over the universe. A Being that had created them would be far more amazing and truly worthy of worship. Sam identified with the psalmist's awe of the universe, and copied down the verses that he found most relatable.

When he returned to Earth, Sam bought a Bible and added it to the Holts' small library, alongside some staple volumes of history and poetry. He continued to read it when he had time to spare, which was not frequently, but regularly enough that his family became accustomed to it and even joined him in reading and talking about the ancient texts.

He studied the gospels and the Acts of the Apostles throughout his wife's first pregnancy. When their son was born, they named him after Saint Matthew, the tax collector who became an apostle, wrote one of the gospels, and was killed for trying to share the truths he had learned. Colleen did not particularly like the idea of naming her child after a martyr, but Sam pointed out that, like the prophets of the Old Testament, the apostles of the early church had sought and shared truth. Jesus called himself the truth (John 14:6), and when Matthew met the truth, he followed it. To change one's entire life after the discovery of a new truth was beautiful and admirable.

On one thing the Holts were in agreement: they wanted their children to always pursue and and profess truth.


Music: "Stars I Shall Find," based on a poem by Sara Teasdale