"West Texas Dusk with Venus, Mercury, and Moon" photographed by Brandon LeBlanc

When my daughter was first born, I spent a lot of time awake at night. (Babies may be cute, but I do not miss the sleepless nights!) To pass the time, I started watching a lot of outer space documentaries. This turned into a deep dive into astronomy podcasts and books. Before then, I would’ve told you I didn’t care a fig about astronomy, but really, I'd never had the time to sit and wonder. Learning about the discovery of the first exoplanet, the history of the Voyager program, and how the Allegheny observatory was first constructed? It fed a deep hunger and invited me to better marvel at this universe our incredible God has created.

For many years, this was a solitary pursuit. As I greedily soaked up more and more—Cassini-Huygens, Io, Supermassive Black Holes!—it started to pour out in my everyday conversations (God bless the kind friends who listened to me get excited about the first images being transmitted back by the James Webb Space Telescope). And this year, I have the immense pleasure of teaching a section of third grade astronomy. I have so much fun teaching this class, and it has made me realize that while I may have brought my adult imagination and wonder to the subject matter, my third graders are not limited by silly adult conventions. Their imaginations do not have set boundaries, and this subject matter allows us to sit and wonder and dream. They come up with the wildest ideas and questions, and yet, the expression of those ideas is not hampered by the seriousness of adulthood. They are free to make connections and propose ideas that are wild and whimsical and often inaccurate, but delightful, nonetheless.

Looking back, I’m grateful for those sleepless nights. While they included time with my beautiful baby girl, staring at her sweet cheeks and expressing gratitude for her place in my life, I am also thankful that it gave me the opportunity to ponder the greatness of the universe. A favorite verse of mine is Psalm 19:1: “The heavens are telling the glory of God; the firmament proclaims his handiwork,” (NRSV). My prayer for my third graders is that the unsullied wonder they experience when learning about the stars rests in their hearts forever. May they always view the heavens as an encounter with our glorious Father.