Gray Hairs and Nebulae
Credit:NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
April 2020 marked the 30th Anniversary of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope launched into orbit. My husband and I watched the fascinating, well, actually astounding pictures taken by the Hubble’s camera! Astronauts installed successive, more sophisticated cameras in later years, to help bring into view images that are myriads of light-years away!
What held me spellbound was the nebula and nebulae. From NASA’s Space Place for Kids (yes, kids), I learned:
… a nebula is a giant cloud of dust and gas in space. Some nebulae (more than one nebula) come from the gas and dust thrown out by the explosion of a dying star, such as a supernova. Other nebulae are regions where new stars are beginning to form. For this reason, some nebulae are called “star nurseries.”
Not only did the nebulae attract my attention, but God did. He’s the one who created the stars, called them by name, and keeps them in place (See Psalm 147:4 and Isaiah 40:26).
This image is one of the most photogenic examples of the many turbulent stellar nurseries the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has observed during its 30-year lifetime. The portrait features the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbour NGC 2020 which together form part of a vast star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, approximately 163 000 light-years away.
Credit:NASA, ESA, and STScI
Soon, I began seeing parallels between what is affectionately called “gray hairs” – those deemed as belonging to older, wiser generations – and these amazing clusters of nebula. I would like to suggest that the gray hairs are like nebulae, acting as “spiritual,” rather than “star” nurseries, helping to form the hearts and minds of the next generations of Christ-followers. And as these gray hairs are dying, they set off an explosion, sometimes giving birth to a “supernova,” or in this instance, a “world changer,” because of the legacies they leave behind.
Unfortunately, the current Covid-19 pandemic chooses the most vulnerable in our world’s population – the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. Nursing homes become breeding grounds for this insidious virus to invade and claim its victims. But we need to hear these living history books with stories yet untold! Weathered by the storms of life, many have had to learn how to persevere, to pull up their proverbial bootstraps, and to press on when it seems their time is past.
My prayer is that not one gray hair leave the planet before his or her appointed time or before their assignment or reason for being born is completed. We need to glean from them, so much more. This is not to say that younger victims of this virus are without value. We’ll never know the full impact their lives could have had. My focus here is to state the intended impact of the older, wiser ones we may now realize we’re not yet ready to release.
Let’s pray for the elderly in our spheres of influence. Just as surely as God’s creative powers brought into being all the wonders of the heavens – wonders that continue to proliferate because it is His nature to create – so the gray hairs have a distinct beauty to share.
Scriptures to pray if you’re a gray hair, or if there is one whose wisdom you long to tap into:
Isaiah 46:3-4 TPT
Listen to me . . .You never had to carry me, but I have carried you from birth. I supported you from the moment you left the womb. Even as you grow old and your hair turns gray, I’ll keep carrying you! I am your Maker and your Caregiver. I will carry you and be your Savior.
Psalm 71:9, 17-18 NKJV
Do not cast me off in the time of old age; Do not forsake me when my strength fails. . . .O God, You have taught me from my youth; And to this day I declare Your wondrous works. Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to everyone who is to come.
Psalm 92:12-15 NIV
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.
Isaiah 59:21 NIV
“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants – from this time on and forever,” says the Lord.