For the past week or so, the planet Venus has been a welcome companion on my early morning runs. The chilly temperatures and clear skies have made for an array of constellations and stars splashed on the dark canopy of the fall sky in the hour or so before dawn. Just above the southeast horizon Venus shines as the brightest of all the lights. Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter are visible, as well, but Venus shouts its bright light the loudest of all. Apparently, she will reach her greatest brilliance at the end of the month. I will keep watching.
The astronomers are quick to remind us that Venus is a planet, not a star, her light only a reflection of the sun’s light. But for millennia those who have endured long and sleepless cold nights, perhaps away from the warmth of hearth and home, have known Venus as she rises to be the morning star, even the bright morning star. That bright light just before dawn has been seen as a promise of good to come. The psalmist wrote, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)
As I run along, then, the pre-dawn sky is a reminder of the Creator’s love of beauty and the wonders of what he has made. But more than that, the bright light in the eastern sky is a reminder that the same God who created the heavens and the earth cares for us. Darkness and cold will not have the last word. Joy comes with the morning by the promise of the one who commands the sun to rise.
In the last book of the Bible, Jesus promises those who remain faithful in Thyatira that he will give them the morning star (Revelation 2:28). Revelation closes with Jesus’ last “I am” statement when he reveals himself to be the bright morning star (Revelation 22:16). To those who remain faithful, Jesus gives himself.
One early morning this week, wispy clouds hung over the eastern horizon. Soon enough they would be gilded with the morning’s light, but as I ran in those last minutes of the night, Venus hid by the clouds and then shining through them, I thought of the clouds that sometimes hang over our lives. Even when those clouds grow thick and obscure the bright morning star, he is there. Though we cannot see God, his promise to never leave us nor forsake us is sure.
The astronomers say I can expect to see Venus as the morning star well into December. Scripture promises that the Bright Morning Star will be with us even until joy dawns on that final morning.