brilliant stars

I have always loved nature; the ocean, the forest and the mountains, but above all, the stars.

O God,

My son teaches this prayer to my daughter, and she repeats the words just as he did years ago.

guide me,

—just as I repeated them from the mouth of my mother.

protect me,

In 1945, researchers at Los Alamos figured out how to put tiny pieces of stars into metal containers, which we then dropped upon other humans living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to settle an argument between some countries that we created. The first flash of light was so incredibly brilliant that it instantly burned away the top layer of everything. People who were standing behind a wall at that moment were unhurt, protected by the shadow; people a few feet away were left with strips of burned flesh hanging off their arms, unable to speak or scream, wandering the streets silently, denuded even of their own skin, until they died.* This was a great scientific achievement of our time.

Is it possible to protect us from ourselves?

make of me a shining lamp

A lamp will only shine out in a dark room, and the only reason the stars are so brilliant at night is because they are surrounded by so much darkness.
and a brilliant star.

I hold my daughter tighter for a moment.

Thou art the Mighty and the Powerful.