The Emperor of Stars

ID: On the right, a time-lapse photo of a night sky over some rocky hills. The stars form a circle of bright lines like a vinyl. By David Kingham Photography. On the left, a stock photo of star-trails in a blue night sky, reflected over a lake.

The Emperor of Stars

Once there was an Emperor of Stars

Whose galaxies were close to his heart.

Children dear to his soul

They jumped in a black hole

And the family was torn apart.

Though the light in their hearts had died

Still, stars could be seen in their eyes.

Dust -- dark and brilliant.

Galaxies without magnate

Circling in a void with no light.

The Emperor grieved his loves would fade.

So a little galaxy he too became.

He reminded them who they are:

Children dear to his heart

And out of the black hole they came.

Although the rekindling was hard,

Their father's light returned to their hearts.

And eons from then

The star-trials read

The name of the Emperor of Stars.

I remember first writing this during class in high school years ago. It's had a few different versions, but I've always preferred the original, even if the rhymes and syllables are a bit off. (But hey, in the age of AI, imperfection is the hot, new trend.)

It was based on a few ideas that fascinated me at the time. One was star-trails, the word for the streaks of light that stars make in time-lapse photos. The other was God's actual name. He calls Himself "I AM" (Ex 3:14) -- the self-existent one -- and has King of Kings and Lord of Lords written on His robe (Rev 19:16), and we have many other titles for Him, but He doesn't exactly have a "true name" like we do.

Combining these ideas, I was struck by an artistic wondering. If the universe is constantly expanding, and our solar system is moving somewhere, what would the star-trails of every heavenly body in the universe look like? If you were to take a time-lapse photo of the universe, what if the star-trails spelled His true name? 

Every event since creation, every effort on humans' and demons' parts to destroy what He has made, every one of my individual detours, will have done nothing to mar His tapestry.