Where we live, cloud cover and urban light obscure all but a few stars at night. But I remember being in a desert once where the night sky was totally clear, dark, and filled with stars beyond number.

God tells Abram to look up at such a sky and count the stars, knowing of course that it’s impossible. What is God’s point?

God has promised to do what Abram now believes is impossible: to make him, an old man, the father of a great nation (Genesis 12:2). But Abram knows it’s humanly impossible for him to father one child, let alone a nation! Yet God points to the stars as if to say, “The maker of those can certainly make you into a father.”

Later God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, which means “father of many nations” (Genesis 17:5). And through Christ, a descendant of Abraham, God’s promise now includes people from ­every tribe and nation (Romans 4; Revelation 5).

And what heralds the birth of Christ? A star (Matthew 2:1-12).

No matter how many stars you can see where you live, look up and rejoice at their beauty. Then remember these signs of God’s promises fulfilled: the stars of Abraham, and the star of Jesus over Bethlehem.