Menkib

Xi Persei or Menkib is in the constellation of Perseus and was visible during my cycle home from chapel last week. It is considered to be a 'blue giant' star on account of its size and heat: it is 12,700 times brighter than the Sun, or 263,000 times if one includes ultraviolet light. Its distance at over 1,200 lightyears from our solar system renders this extremely dazzling source of light a mere pin-prick in a dark sky, yet it is still one of the hottest objects visible to the naked eye.

Last Sunday, I preached on the Lord’s transfiguration in Matthew 17:

‘and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light’.

Although Matthew says that His face was like the sun, I cannot but wonder that even Menkib itself is a but a flickering candle compared to the ultra-brilliance of Christ’s supernatural radiance. The brightness of His face that day was surely toned down for the disciples’ own safety. How in heaven we shall gaze into that glorious face I cannot tell: our new, resurrection-body-eyes will surely be equipped for such a feat- or perhaps not, for the sepaphim of Isaiah 6 must cover their own faces before so blazing a sight. Yet elsewhere, we are told:

Image by Николай Оберемченко from Pixabay