Does each person have their own star?

Q. Is it true that each and every person has their own star? If that is true, is it a star that they can see?

There’s nothing in the Bible that says or suggests that each person has their own star. However, there are a couple of ideas in the Bible that you could put together along those lines to realize something encouraging.

First, the Bible does say that God knows all of the stars. Isaiah says, for example:

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
    Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
    and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
    not one of them is missing.

Psalm 147 says similarly that God “determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.”

We can put that thought together with the Bible’s affirmation that God knows each person individually. Psalm 139 marvels about this, saying:

You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

So when you look up at the sky at night and see the stars, you can say to yourself, “God must be very great in knowledge, and he must care a great deal about His creation, to know all of the stars by name. And since there are many more people on earth than there are stars visible in the sky from the earth, God must be even greater in knowledge and love to know each person by name and care about them.”

You could even pick out one particular star in the sky, call it “your star” (or at least your “favorite star”), and when you see it, use it as a reminder of God’s love and care for you.

Author: Christopher R Smith

The Rev. Dr. Christopher R. Smith is an an ordained minister, a writer, and a biblical scholar. He was active in parish and student ministry for twenty-five years. He was a consulting editor to the International Bible Society (now Biblica) for The Books of the Bible, an edition of the New International Version (NIV) that presents the biblical books according to their natural literary outlines, without chapters and verses. His Understanding the Books of the Bible study guide series is keyed to this format. He was also a consultant to Tyndale House for the Immerse Bible, an edition of the New Living Translation (NLT) that similarly presents the Scriptures in their natural literary forms, without chapters and verses or section headings. He has a B.A. from Harvard in English and American Literature and Language, a Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Gordon-Conwell, and a Ph.D. in the History of Christian Life and Thought, with a minor concentration in Bible, from Boston College, in the joint program with Andover Newton Theological School. View all posts by Christopher R Smith