“You have set your glory above the heavens.” Psalm 8:1b

The Camp Bato in Sibonga, Cebu is a favorite campsite. For many years it served as a venue for our annual Kawayan Camp for college students. Set about two thousand meters above sea level, it overlooks a beautiful and vast expanse of land and sea capped by a clear-blue sky.

The sky at Camp Bato is lovely both day and night. During the day, flocks of wooly clouds appear in ancient patterns and designs. Birds soar high in different directions, enjoying unhampered freedom. At night, the majestic moon drifts dreamily and lazily across the unbounded darkness. Countless stars spring to life, some sparkling in cold brilliance. According to science, they are in billions, although only a few thousands can be seen by the naked eye, and are trillion miles away from the earth.

When not attending sessions at night, the campers would lie on their back on either the concrete pavement or stone benches and spend about an hour looking at the stars, sometimes attempting to count them. Such “star bath” feels like a plunge into immensity, into bigness, into space. The feeling is overwhelming. It makes you feel very small and insignificant.

Such plunge into immensity, into space, into bigness, is good for the soul. For it does not only enlarge our vision and perspective of the world but also shifts our focus from the puny size of our existence to the immense reality of God. He is immeasurably bigger than the XXXL shirt we try to put on Him.

by Millicent Guarin