When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 
Matthew 2:10

THE GOD WHO GUIDES PLANETS
The exact nature of the Christmas star has been debated for centuries, but many astronomers today think that the Magi were brought to Judea by a series of rare and spectacular conjunctions between the planets Jupiter, Venus, and the star Regulus in the constellation of Leo (the Lion) that occurred over several months from 3 to 2 B.C. (a nice animation and explanation of these events is available at the NBC News site below).  The most impressive of these happened on the evening of June 17, 2 B.C. when Jupiter and Venus came so close together in Leo that they appeared as one single, brilliant point of light.  Anyone who has taken Horoscopes 101 could read these stellar events as, “A king (Jupiter) has been born (Venus) in Judea (Lion).”  This was an incredible message from God to the astrologers of that age, which caught the attention of some and motivated them to travel a great distance to confirm what had happened.  However, I think that this was more than a sign to these wise men: It affirmed to Mary and Joseph that God’s promises about this special child were not just their own private dreams or visions.

Doubtless there was more to the star of Bethlehem than this planetary conjunction, since something appeared in the sky that directed the Magi to the specific house where the Christ child was staying.  But this dance of the planets does not explain away the miraculous, it heightens it.  Calculations show that this incredible series of conjunctions will occur only once in human history, and it “just happened” at precisely the time that Jesus was born!

What an astonishing example of God’s power, foreknowledge, and control over the universe: when He created the Solar System, He placed the planets in their orbits so that this unique event would happen at just the right time!  We often proclaim that God is Sovereign and Lord, but how often do we think that this applies to the positions of planets?  Yet the deeper we look into the world around us through the eyes of science, the more examples appear of precise fine-tuning in the structure and composition of the universe.  The conditions for life to be possible on Earth or anywhere in the universe are so incredibly balanced and delicate that the odds of it happening by chance are, well, astronomical, and cry out that there is a Genius behind it.

We read that God cares for each sparrow and knows how many hairs are on our head; but do we appreciate the infinite knowledge and guidance that God has of the world around us?  That He is in precise control of the challenges and trials that He brings into our lives?  That the God who guides planets can also guide us to accomplish His perfect will?  He is Sovereign and Lord indeed!

For further reading:

• That Christmas 'Star of Wonder' still leaves plenty to wonder about
• bethlehemstar.net
• The Star of Bethlehem: A Natural-Supernatural Hybrid?

John Bloom, Professor of Physics

LORD JESUS CHRIST, you truly contain within your gentleness, within your humanity, all the unyielding immensity and grandeur of the universe. And it is because of this, it is because there exists in you this ineffable synthesis of what our human thought and experience would never have dared join together in order to adore them, element and totality, the one and the many, mind and matter, the infinite and the personal; it is because of the indefinable contours which this complexity gives to your appearance and to your activity, that my heart, enamored of cosmic reality, gives itself passionately to you. I love you, Lord Jesus. You are the center at which all things meet and which stretches out over all things so as to draw them back into itself: I love you for the extensions of your body and soul to the farthest corners of creation through grace, through life, and through matter. Amen
Teilhard de Chardin