Rays of Light

Chopping wood today, my brother in law and I got on the topic, I'm not sure how, of the Northern Lights. He said, "I haven't seen them in a long while." I told him, as I reached into my memory, that I had last seen them in the sky the November before we were married, standing in the park near where our future house was. He figured out what year that was and realized that that was the last year that he had seen them as well.

On the way home, my daughter said, "Dad, what are those lines in the sky?" I looked out, and saw dark lines on some bright clouds in the distance, figuring that was what she was talking about. I said, "I don't know, maybe jet contrails?" A few minutes later, I leaned forward, wondering why there was so much glowing in the sky. As a I looked out, I could not believe my eyes. A long chain of glimmering green shafts of light danced across the sky in front of us. "Look!" I said, and we all gazed in awe. My wife had a hard time keeping her eyes on the road. I phoned up my brother in law, and told him to go outside, let his eyes adjust, and look up. He did, and was blown away by yet another one of the strange coincidences in our lives. He told me he was going to stay up at the cottage that night, and stare up at the stars.

I told my wife we should pull off. She said, "We'll be late for church."

"My dear," I replied, "We are already at church."

We pulled off, and stared until they faded. There were pinks, and purples, and a shimmering green. It was little short of spectacular. When we got back in the car, the three of us all started singing that song...

Here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that you're my God
You're altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me.