BY DOUG BATCHELOR

How many stars can you see with the naked eye? It depends. There are many variables that determine what you can see without the aid of a telescope. For instance, you can observe more stars on a moonless night. City lights will also inhibit the clarity of the night sky. And, of course, as you get older, your ability to see faint light deteriorates. All in all, many suggest you might count 5,000 stars.

If you bump up to a pair of 50mm binoculars, however, the number of visible stars jumps to 100,000. A three-inch telescope dramatically increases the number to about five million. But that's nothing. Our milky way galaxy has between 100 and 300 billion stars. But hold on to your hat. Many astronomers say that with our best telescopes the observable universe has one hundred billion galaxies! That's roughly seventy billion trillion stars.

When Abraham questioned God's promise to give him offspring, the Lord told the doubter to go outside and "count the stars if you are able to number them," and then added, "So shall your descendants be" (Genesis 15:5). Did the patriarch stand outside his tent and try to count stars? The next verse suggests otherwise. No matter how many of the innumerable stars he could see on that dark night, the greatest miracle was that this old man believed he would someday have just one child.

The truth about stars is that as better technology allows us to peer deeper into the vastness of space, the more we realize the unimaginable scope of the universe. Perhaps our best response to the Creator who promises us salvation, even when we've doubted, si that of Abraham.

The Lord asks you to count the stars. You don't need a telescope to know that each light tells of His love for you. With the naked eye of faith you can believe.

"And [Abram] believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness." (Genesis 15:6)

[Excerpt taken the Amazing Facts Daily Devotional "A Cloud of Witnesses", p. 29]