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| October 15 - my first attempt at taking a photo of the visiting comet |
Not long ago, I saw a devotional that suggested we read a passage of the Bible and then try to figure out who in the story most resonates with us.
Am I most like the Samaritan woman? Or am I one of the ones in the crowd, judging her? That will stop you in your tracks, right?
And poor Thomas. Say the name Thomas and ask how that disciple fits into Jesus' resurrection story, and the first thing we do is add a derogatory adjective to it. It's not simply Thomas. But Doubting Thomas.
I must admit that as Randy and I searched the western skies for the Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, I might have that same "Doubting" adjective attached to my name.
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| From a Facebook post |
Try as we might, we couldn't find it - not with our naked eyes. Not with Randy's binoculars. Not even with my iPhone, which everyone said was the easier way to find it. However, when we went back inside and I did the inevitable scrolling through Facebook, it appeared that others had figured out the "secret formula." They got photos of the comet.
If we'd relied only on our naked eye, the same could have been said for the Northern Lights.
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| October 10, 2024 |
On October 10, news stations were saying that Kansans might again have the opportunity to see the Northern Lights because of solar storms. We had made a similar excursion in May. I thought maybe that had been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but I was glad for another chance.
Just like in May, we struggled to see the Northern Lights with our naked eye. But when I looked through my iPhone, the camera's eye was able to see what I couldn't. (Interestingly, Randy's Android phone didn't provide that view.)
It reminded me of the poem, "Who Has Seen the Wind?" by Christina Rossetti.
Just like the wind that's "invisible" unless it's stirring the leaves (or unprotected fallow farm ground), the lights weren't visible without some help.
As we stood in the cool fall night, I
thought again about how that was a metaphor for faith.
Hebrews 11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
Following those initial verses, there is a whole chapter of familiar Bible names and the ways they carried out their faith.
The New Century translation says it this way:
What is faith? Faith is believing when you can’t see it. People say, “Seeing is believing.” God says the exact opposite: “Believing is seeing.” Some things you’ll never see unless you believe them first. Every great achievement started when someone first believed it was possible. Faith turns dreams into realities. Nothing happens until someone first believes it’s possible.
We went out a couple of different times and a couple of different locations. The light patterns moved somewhat from the first time we looked to the second time.
And there was a scientific explanation for why were were able to see the Northern Lights so far south. (Again, count on Facebook to help a girl out.)
Still ... as we stood in the dark with a kaleidoscope of color overhead, I couldn't help but think about just how fortunate we are to see the beauty in God's Creation - that we are able to witness "the universe formed at God’s command."
An update:
We tried again to find the comet after seeing a graphic about where to look in the night sky on specific days and Googling information on changing my iPhone settings.
It's still not an award-winning photo, but we did get to see it.
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| October 16, 2024 |
We got a little chilly. In January, we'll think that 50 degrees feels balmy, but our bodies haven't quite made the shift from summer temperatures to the autumn cooling. So once we found the comet and its tail and I "sorta-kinda" got a photo, we were ready to head back inside.
I was glad to witness it after a recent reminder from an email devotional:
A Time to Think
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