Today’s Scripture Reading (June 26, 2016): Psalm 147
HD 140283 is a metal-poor star that from Earth can be seen in the constellation of Libra. Metal-poor stars are thought to be second generation stars, indicating that their existence started after the first generation stars (formed in the Big Bang) had died and their gases had cooled enough to allow for the new star’s creation. But what has made HD 140283 of special importance to us is that it is the oldest star that we have found. Scientists estimate that the age of HD 140283 is 14.46 billion years with a margin of error of 0.8 billion years. Unfortunately, that makes HD 140283 older than our current estimate of the age of the universe (scientists currently estimate that the universe is somewhere between 13.778 and 13.820 billion years old). If these numbers are right we can narrow down the age of HD 140283 to somewhere between 13.66 billion years (the minimum age of HD 140283 taking into account the margin of error) and somewhere just short of 13.82 billion years (the oldest possible age of the universe - according to our current calculations.)
My problem is that I can’t remember the name of the star without looking it up (somehow HD 140283 refuses to stick in my mind.) Luckily, the star has a nickname, which I think should just become the name of the star. The nickname for HD 140283 is “The Methuselah Star.’ The name comes from Genesis 5 and it is the name of Noah’s grandfather who, according to the Bible, died the same year as the Great Flood, or Noah’s flood. At the time of his death, Methuselah was 969 years of age, making him the oldest person in the Bible. Methuselah is a lot easier for me to remember than HD 140283.
Psalm 147 says that God numbers and name each star. I have great faith that God’s name for this star is not HD 140283. But sometimes I do wonder what God calls it as he looks down on this great granddaddy of stars. Maybe he calls it the Methuselah star, although I suspect that God had a name for the star billions of years before Methuselah lived and died.
Of course, wondering what name God might have for HD 140283 is really to miss the point of the Psalm. The psalmist looked up at the evening sky and saw nothing but pinpricks of light. He probably had a vague idea that these lights were objects in the sky, but there were so many of them that they were impossible to count. To the psalmist, if God cared enough to give these slivers of light names and control the number of them that he will allow to exist, how much more must he care for us, who were also created by him.
Maybe someday God will reveal to us his names for the stars, but what is the even more important truth is that he cares for you, and he probably has a name for you as well. He calls you beautiful, special, unique and fully worthy of being created by him.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 148
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