Stray Star

The newspaper headline announced: "Young star pulled by wrong crowd may be destined to stray forever."
The article wasn't about a promising Hollywood actor or pop musician whos personal life was disintegrating.

This star was of the outer-space variety.

Known to astronomers as Tauri Sb, the relatively small star(20 percent of the mass of our sun) had been part of a four-star family.

For 20 years, researchers have been watching its movements.

They noticed that the small star was drawn toward a larger pair, coming close enough so that as it passed them, Tauri Sb doubled its speed and shot off away from its original solar family. It looks like Tauri Sb will end up wandering through space.

What happens in outer space is similar to what happens to people on our little planet. Like the young son in the parable, a person pursues bad relationships and wanders far from home.

That "home" may be a family, a church, or friends.

It also usually means wandering away from God.

And It's all too easy to find "friends" who will encourage the wanderer to keep going.

The big difference between Tauri Sb and the prodigal in Jesus' parable is that the star, if it ever turns back home, will be in an orbit far distant from its original relationship to its family.

But the young son came back--back to his father's open arms.

The same can be true for you and me if we have allowed ourselves to be pulled away from a close relationship with God.

We don't have to wonder if the Lord wants us back---He does.

We don't have to wait light-years to repair our relationship---He wants us back right away.(See Luke 15:17-24)

Do you need to come home?

-Kurt De Haan, ODJ

Luke 15:11-20

His father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him(v.20) Once you were like a sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls(1 Peter 2:25)