Tuesday, February 27th, 2024
Last week I experienced some of the most interesting events that led to one of the most incredible sights I have ever observed in the sky. I can’t help but see the goodness of God in all of it. On a typical evening, I don’t usually go out to get the chicken eggs until we have put the kids to bed. On the evening of February 21st, however, as soon as I had finished cleaning up the kitchen, I felt prompted to go outside and complete that task early. When I was almost to the chicken coop, I noticed a reddish light in the sky. We live out in the country away from city lights, so if it’s clear enough we get great views of many stars, planets and the moon. I am always looking around to see what’s visible. That night, I kept looking at that reddish light and soon realized it was moving. At this point I assumed it was an airplane. So I went back to the task of collecting eggs.
A few moments later I heard a faint deep throttle of a large helicopter. As I looked back at the reddish light, I realized this was where the sound was coming from. I could tell it was coming closer, so I decided to stop what I was doing and watch. As I was standing there, I saw a bright light start shooting down from the sky in almost the same exact location. At first, the light from the helicopter and the shooting star were not computing in my brain. They were about the same size, and were coming from almost the same location, but this didn’t seem like something that should be happening. Then a little bit of the shooting light started to dissipate, and I saw about five trails of light come off of what was left of the main bright ball. At this point I realized it was a meteor falling from the sky. My jaw dropped as I could barely believe what I was witnessing. I thought for sure this thing was going to fall to the ground somewhere. But in a few moments the whole fireball dissipated mid-sky. For about the next 15 minutes I am pretty sure my jaw still did not return to its normal position.
My mind went into full-on analysis mode. What was that? How far away was that? Did anyone else see that? God, how did You do that? Then I processed my last few activities. God, you prompted me to come outside early. You drew my attention to the red light in the sky. You drew my attention to the helicopter sound and then showed me the most marvelous night-sky show I have ever seen. This is what I felt God say to my spirit, “I love everything I have made and I want to share it with you. I love to use the beauty of my Creation to show you how much I love you.” He orchestrated every one of those events to show me how much He loves me. How many of these love notes do you think we miss during the day? How many times are we too busy or too distracted to hear his gentle promptings and experience the majesty of who God is and all that He has created? I am sure I have missed many more than I have observed.
Just a few scriptures that have come to my mind these last few days. Psalm 19:1 says:
1The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Psalm 27:4 says:
4 One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.
Last one, Revelation 4:11:
11 “You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created.”
When we think about dwelling in the house of the Lord, what does that look like? To me, it looks like being present enough to see all the incredible things around us that God has created. It looks like thanking God for the incredibleness of His Creation. It looks like recognizing that when God said everything He had made was good, that includes us. It looks like following Holy Spirit’s prompting when He wants to guide us with the big stuff and also when He just wants to awe us with some incredible wonder of nature. He wants to do life with us, every single moment of it. This is dwelling in the house of God.
Final Thoughts…
According to the American Meteor Society website, there were at least 429 other people from Canada to Virginia that observed the same fireball I saw. The website takes info from each submission and makes a guess as to where the fireball was. Apparently, it started and ended somewhere in the skies above northwest Pennsylvania. This feels like a simple blog, but the whole experience has filled my heart with a new level of wonder regarding God’s Creation. How many other surprises do You have in store for us, God? Let us learn to pay more attention to you every step along the way. We want to get the big decisions right, but we don’t want to miss anymore love notes along the way. You are so creative and loving and we love that we get to be loved by You!