December stars - 7 days 'till Christmas

"December Stars," 5 by 7 watercolor card

Stars--eternity to us mortals. 
When we see stars we are looking back in time, to millions of years for that light to reach us across the expanses of the universe.
A nova, an exploding star, dominates the night sky, causing wonder and worship through the ages, a sign of royalty and divinity,  of auspicious events.
Today, our scientific and materialistic cultures have robbed those stars and novas of their magic, of their power, of the myths and beliefs that gives them meaning, reducing them to being barely noticed in the light- and life-polluting urban world we live in.
But they still exist and have significance for those cultures who know the physical and magical of life are united. 
Life is a miracle. Stars should remind us every night, especially in December. 

(Day 18 of 31 December watercolors) 

 "I believe the reason for the inner confusion of Western man is that our technological society has no longer any place in it for wisdom that seeks truth for its own sake, that seeks the fullness of being, that seeks to rest in an intuition of the very ground of all being." --Thomas Merton, Faith and Violence, 1968, University of Notre Dame press