Crane Your Neck

One of my favorite memories is from almost exactly seven years ago. In November 2001, the boys and I got up at 4am to witness the Leonid meteor shower. It was supposed to be the best showing until 2099, so we didn't want to miss it.

For thirty minutes we huddled in blankets on the deck and never had to wait more than 20-30 seconds to see a meteor, sometimes as few as 3 or 4 seconds. I estimated we saw more than 100 "shooting stars" during our 30 minute vigil. I mentioned to Brayden on the way back inside that the Bible says that when Jesus returns, He will appear out of the eastern sky. He thought that was pretty cool. The Leonid meteor shower derives it's name from the area of the night sky from which it seems to originate: the constellation of Leo. It occurs to me that this is an interesting parallel to the "Lion of Judah."

(This past weekend, a very large meteor lit up the sky in Canada. Definitely a video worth watching!)

The night sky is absolutely a wonder, especially in the colder months. You can see the Orion nebula and the Andromeda galaxy with the naked eye, there's the Winter Triangle and other fascinating sights to see on those crystal nights.

A few nights ago, Jupiter and Venus were reflecting brilliantly in the southwestern sky right after sunset, chasing the horizon. I love to just stare at things like this. It still fascinates me like it did when I was a kid.

Gazing upward often gives me a deeper sense of God's penultimate power and control, and comforts me, too, as I am reminded that I belong to Him. I think we should look up more often, take it all in, and learn something new about God's glory. In the words of Rich Mullins, "it don't do to talk about glory if you never look up and see the sky."