Advent Day 6 – Abraham – Can You Count the Stars? – A Bible Story and Some Activities for the Family

After the time of Noah and the Tower of Babel,

The people in God’s world became more and more wicked. “But God was going to make all wrong things right. And He was going to do it through a family.”

“‘Abraham,’ God said, ‘How many stars are there?”

God was about to tell His friend a wonderful secret. God was about to promise Abraham that he and his elderly wife were about to father a family, the descendants of which would be of a greater number than that of the stars in the sky.

This story is of great importance to people who believe in Jesus. Jesus was an Israelite, and they were the people God had promised would become His chosen people. Father Abraham was the head of that nation.

I love this story for more than one reason, however, I love that the author mentioned God’s reference to the stars.

For just a moment, let’s go back to the beginning of time when the world was watery and dark.

The first thing that God created was light.

Darkness versus the Light is a theme that frequently appears in the arts. In most cases, when the theme of the night is employed in a literary piece, the darkness of the night alludes to something sinister that is present in the story.

As in everything else, there are variations upon the nighttime and darkness themes. When the moon and/or the stars are mentioned in a book, the night’s effects are softened. Often, a degree of magic enters via the vehicles of the moon and the stars.

The Moon and the Stars are the Lights of the Night.

I have never been an all-white or an all-black person. I prefer a degree of the night to a blazing light day. But the operative word is “degree.”

I have never liked rooms lit by fluorescent lights or overhead lights of any kind. I rarely turn on an overhead light. I like the more subtle illumination of a lamp’s light. Somewhere in the stew of my memory, the moon took on the essence of magic. and my life’s quest has been that of chasing that magic–and of recreating it in my books and my art.

He did not create the Sun, Moon, or Stars immediately, but He did believe that Light was so very important that He elected to add that to His creation first

In my mind, the stars are a trail of pixie dust–a yellow brick road through the otherwise dark sky. Regardless of the language spoken, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star is a carol of the elves–or an angel song in the night sky.

Iz’s version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star captures the magic of starlight better than any song I’ll ever hear. Absolute Credit for this video belongs to Israel Kamakawiwoʻole. This version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star has sent chills throughout my body since the first time I heard it.

Now, here’s an important thing for me to tell fans of my picture book The Donkey’s Song. When I wrote about the stars and night, I envisioned the painting that Iz’s music painted in my mind’s eye, and I tried to capture that essence in just a few words. The illustrator of the book, Sydney Hanson, captured the same essence with her illustrations.

Here are the pages that precede and follow this one:

“A wee, bitty baby, all wrapped in white cloth
A bit of a barn gathered round.

“A bit of a star. A bit of a moon.
A bit of a sweet angel sound.”

Remember from DAY 3 OF ADVENT, that we must honor people from other cultures and support Multiculturalism. The above is a Hawaiian version of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

Hawaii is a Polynesian Culture, and the Disney movie Moana is about the Polynesian culture. This version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star was sung by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole. No version of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star better captures the magic of watching the stars and the night skyl