It was a cloudless Christmas night around 6:30 pm, just after sunset, when I was driving to my mother’s home in Florida. We had come from seeing family for Christmas, and straight ahead in the windshield view, towards the southwest, I saw one very bright star shining above the horizon near the sunset glow. Since it was Christmas, I thought about the Wise Men following the star to Bethlehem and wondered what this star was in the sky. It was the only one visible at the time (see recreation below).
Later at home, I checked Stellarium, a very good, free astronomy program, on the computer and saw the star was actually Jupiter (see screenshot below), which I remember from Ernest L. Martin’s book, The Star That Astonished The World, where he showed with very convincing evidence from his stellar research, the “star” he believed the Wise Men followed to Bethlehem was also Jupiter, which actually did hover over Bethlehem on 3 or 2 BC, exactly when Christ was born.
Even more interesting, I saw in Stellarium that Saturn and Venus were making a line with Jupiter on Christmas night, in a similar way to the stars of Orion’s Belt (see screenshot above). I couldn’t see Saturn or Venus at sunset, though, because of the sun’s glow.
This alignment peaked my interest further, so I looked at time-lapse views of the alignment for the days ahead and saw that Venus would go out of alignment with Jupiter and Saturn, but was quickly replaced with Mercury in a similar alignment (see below).
I’m not an avid astronomer, so I don’t know how often an alignment like this happens, but from my limited experience with the stars, I know it is very infrequent, and my being in the right place at the right time to see the Christmas Star while driving home was another instance of God’s perfect timing to inspire me. This kind of supposedly "accidental" serendipity has happened to me more than I can count now.
God truly did make the moon, planets, and stars to give signs and appoint times, for He said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and they shall serve as signs and for seasons, and for days and years; and they shall serve as lights in the expanse of the heavens..." (Genesis/Bereishit 1:14-15).
My being in Florida to help with my mother’s retirement home for Christmas this year played a critical role as well. If I were back home in Minnesota, I very likely would not have seen the Christmas Star at sunset, since I'm usually always in the house on holidays. Time and place played important roles here, and now I saw a very unusual double-alignment of the stars happening in the near future on the sunset horizon.
I felt God was telling me to investigate this, so like the Star of Bethlehem pointed to a place, I went to a map and tried to see where the 2021 Christmas Star was pointing when I saw it on the road.
There weren’t that many options since I was in Florida, close to the coast, and would quickly run to the Gulf of Mexico on the map. My best guess was the star pointed somewhere in between Crystal Bay and Homosassa Bay, which was interesting, because just a day or so earlier, I was sightseeing near where the star was pointing, an area called Kings Bay.
This is another unusual alignment. Was this year’s Christmas Star pointing to Kings Bay, like the Star of Bethlehem pointed to our King Messiah? Another odd thing about King’s Bay was I already knew about it because of researching the area for my mother’s retirement.
I found it strange there was a King’s Bay in Florida where we were going to travel when I had named a bay in my Irish adventure novel, Aching Prosperity, the same thing many years ago, except I used the Irish version – Bá Rí (pronounced “Bah Ree”). This would be another very non-coincidental alignment with my path in Irish culture and creative projects.
And even before I went on this trip to Florida, the Lord gave me another reminder of Ireland with a new business cell phone I recently got. I noticed its IMEI number started with 353 (photo below), which reminds me of Ireland because I know their phone area code is 353.
On top of that, God gave me big reminders around the same time I got the new phone that told me to stop working so much and find personal happiness. The Lord reminded me of my past as a romantic artist. Now this new link with a real Christmas Star over Kings Bay and my creative, romantic works seem to be God’s continued reminder towards personal pursuits.
When I realized the Christmas Star I saw made unusual alignments with other stars, I felt like one of the Wise Men journeying to Bethlehem. Except, I’m sure their journey was planned well in advance, while I seemed to stumble on this very unusual sequence of stars in what is God’s serendipity and predestiny – not a fortuitous, happy accident, which is the dictionary definition of serendipity, but something with God’s plan in it. It would have all been hidden to me if the Lord had not timed everything so perfectly for me to see it. Praise Him for His wonders!
I feel the Lord is telling me to go see what's on the horizon when Venus is replaced with Mercury at sunset, which happens on January 8th or 9th, 2022. The moon also comes very close to lining up with the planets on the same dates, as well, though it does not seem to be a perfect alignment, and it is likely the lower stars on the horizon will not be visible at all when I go see them, because as the sun sets, the stars also move lower and may disappear under the horizon before they become visible as the sky darkens. We’ll have to see what happens.
