Love Anyway, Mama

 This Mama was born into slavery. She already had a daughter and a son when she learned she was expecting a third baby.  She tried to keep it a secret. The Pharoah had made a law that all baby boys should be thrown into the river. 

Maybe it would be a girl.

The day came for the baby to be born. Maybe Amram and Jochebed didn't even call the midwife. Jochebed tried not to make any noise as the sweat rose on her forehead. Amram soon held the tiny human in his hands. They cleaned him off. It was a boy. They exchanged knowing looks. Quietly they removed any evidence. Maybe no one would notice. 

For three months no one noticed. 

For three months the tiny baby nursed and slept and barely fussed. She held him and prayed over him.

For three months their secret was safe.

But how much longer could they hide him?

Jochebed knew it was only a matter of time before someone would find out. So, she decided to follow the law- literally! If her baby was going to be thrown into the river, it would be by her hands, in her way and time. She worked for several days, making the little basket, sealing ever crack. Praying and crying. One day it was ready. She nursed him a little longer. She held him a little tighter. Then, she placed him in the basket and covered him securely. 

Little Miriam was with her. Mama's helper. She had been through so much in her little life. She was also being prepared for great things. This was just the beginning of her ministry.

They placed the tiny basket in the river. Miriam stayed to watch from the reeds along the riverbank.

 Miriam's mom left, pretending like nothing had happened, as if the last year had been a dream. She chatted with the other women. She attended to her tasks. But inside she was crying out to God for mercy. Praying for a miracle. There seemed to be no way. I presume she didn't have a whole lot of experiences with the miraculous. Yet, she believed in the power of God. 

Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by her little girl running towards her. Was it over? Had her precious baby been eaten by a crocodile, or discovered by soldiers?

"The princess wants to see you, Mama!" little Miriam called out, tears streaming down her cheeks. Jochebed dropped what she was doing. The rest of the world vanished behind her as she ran faster than she had ever run before.

That evening she sat and held her baby. Moses was the name the princess had given him. "Moses!" she whispered as she nursed him. She tried to hide her tears. God had answered her prayers. Moses was alive! She treasured the moments she had with this little one, pouring into him all that she was allowed to. Physical food as well as spiritual. Singing songs of the promised land as he drifted off to sleep. -knowing her time was short. 

The nourishment she gave him planted seeds that would grow for the next eighty years. Was Jochebed still alive to see the exodus from Egypt? I doubt it. She was probably buried in Egypt. She didn't know that her son would be the one to lead her people to freedom. 

Oh, how important her job was!

We don't know what future plans God had for our children either. We don't know what experiences they will have, or what kind of world they will live in several decades from now.

But right now, as we hold them close, we have an amazing opportunity to fill them with tools they will need wherever this life takes them. Fill them with scripture. Instill in them a love for God's Word. Sing songs to them about God's love and hope for the future. And, most of all pray for them. It's probable that we will never see the end result of these prayers we pray over our children, and grandchildren. But don't lose hope! Those prayers will not be in vain. 

We don't know how much time we have to hold them. 

Probably less than eighty years.

Sometimes, being a Mama might feel pointless. Constantly cleaning up never-ending messes. Or maybe your kids are older, and they are making choices that hurt your heart (like when Moses killed someone and fled into the desert.). Don't stop praying for them.

Even if they don't make the choices you hoped they would. 

Even if you don't get as much time with them as you thought you would.

Even if no one says, "Thank you."

Love them anyway! Cherish each moment and be all in! You have the most important job in the world! 

The Patience of Caleb

 

Jojo and I are reading in the book of Joshua again. I'm not going to try to explain, or even understand, some of the very hard chapters in this book. But one small passage stood out to me this time. It was about a man named Caleb.

Caleb had been on this journey since they left Egypt. He was about 40 years old at the time of the exodus! Caleb's voice was part of the cry that reached heaven in Exodus 3:7 The cry that changed an 80-year-old Moses's occupation from shepherd to deliverer . His hand may well have painted the doorpost of his slave quarters with lamb's blood. His body probably held scars of his time in slavery. However, he was different than the others in his generation.

HE BELIEVED!

He believed that Moses was sent by God. He believed that, even though things seemed to get worse, at first, they would be free people soon! He walked through the Red Sea and watched as his Egyptian owners were washed away. That life was over. A new one had begun. 

He didn't complain about the walking, or the heat, or the cold, or the times he felt thirsty. He ate manna every day with a thankful heart! Bread from Heaven! Angel's food!

Soon they reached the Promise Land. The land that Caleb's ancestors had lived in many years before, but had never forgotten. The land that was now occupied by GIANTS!

Caleb believed God would keep His promise.

When Moses sent a man from each tribe to spy out the land, Caleb was one of them. Caleb walked through an area called: Kadesh-Barnea. He took note of everything. He was ready to come back and conquer the land! Soon they would be free people in their own land. Caleb was ready to see what God would do next.

Joshua and Caleb's excitement is hard to miss, even after centuries and a few translations. It was time!

But no one else seemed excited. They were discouraged. They felt defeated before the battle even began. The beautiful, promised land would not be inhabited by this generation. They must wander in the wilderness for 40 years!

Moses assured Caleb and Joshua that they would live to return and take possession of the land.

Finally, the day came.

Joshua was the leader. 

City by city and piece, by piece, the land was claimed by God's people. Music brought walls down, the sun and moon stood still, and giants were slain. Gradually, each tribe, each family was able to claim their inheritance.

Then, Caleb went to visit his old comrade, Joshua.

"I am 85-years-old today." he said. "...still strong as ever. I'm ready for the land that Moses promised me."

Joshua gave him his blessing.

The Anakim lived there. Giants. A people group still spoken of in hushed tones. Mysterious beings, strong and fierce.

Caleb was ready. He had been ready 40 years ago, and he was even more ready now! 

Caleb could have settled somewhere the younger soldiers had already conquered. But he wanted the land he had explored all those years before. The land of the giants! 

This brave, strong warrior took the hill (Joshua 14:12) and claimed Hebron or himself and his descendants. I wonder if some of them are living there today. I wonder if any of them are as brave as Caleb.

Has God promised you something? Do you feel like, by the time it comes you'll be too old to enjoy it? Remember, Caleb. The man who patiently watched almost everyone else in his generation get discouraged and give up. But who never lost hope and lived to see the fruition of what he had been walking towards his whole life:

 Rest, Peace and Freedom!

A Wasted Life (chapter 2)

 My poor husband had to endure hearing me vent when I got home.

"PE is nothing to mess around with! Jonah might have known the warning signs if he had paid attention!"

My sweet husband paused the video game he was playing with our son and looked up. I could tell he was already lost. 

"I'm a teacher." he reminded me. "I have a feeling PE means something different to me, than it does to you."

"PE, pulmonary embolism." I knew that information didn't help. Sometimes I wish I had someone in my family who spoke my language! But I suppose that would be boring. 

'It's basically a blood clot that moves from the leg to the lungs. It can be deadly." I answered in words he could understand. "Evidently, he has been ignoring symptoms for several weeks: -a swollen, sore leg, followed by a lingering cough and shortness of breath. Who ignores shortness of breath!?"

"I hear ya, but to be fair, he did eventually go to the hospital, and he is going to be okay, right?" 

"No! I mean, yes, he went, but he WOULD have died if it hadn't been for a customer of his. Jonah had just arrived at the scene of an accident. The ambulance was getting ready to leave. When Jonah stepped out of his truck he stumbled and fell on the ground. Someone waved for the EMT's to come over. If they hadn't been right there, it could have been a lot worse."

Later that evening, after the kids were in bed, my husband spoke up. "I think I know what is really bothering you." He always seemed to know, even when I didn't. I had been venting all evening, but now I just sat, ready to listen.

"I don't think it is Jonah you are worried about. I think it is you!"

"What!?" I asked "If Jonah had made better life decisions..." I stopped myself. It was time to listen.

"I think you are wondering if YOU made the right life decisions."

"I love being a nurse. We both agreed that it would make more sense for me to work and you to stay home with the kids." But even as I heard myself speak those words, I realized that he was right. Caleb was wonderful at homeschooling the kids. I got depressed when I was home all day. Also, nursing made more money than teaching. But deep inside I wondered if this was the best way to do life.

Why had I made the decisions I had? How far back should I go?

"Most of your life decisions you have made to please someone else." my husband explained. 

I was the oldest child in my family. I wanted so much to please my parents and grandparents. I wanted to do things right! So, when Grandma said I would make a good nurse, and Grandpa said he would help pay for it, I joined medical school. Did I even pray to see if that was what GOD wanted me to do with my life? I had prayed! Right?!

"I wonder what my life might have been like if I didn't worry so much about what people thought and did what I truly believe God wanted me to do."

"It might not have been that different." Caleb suggested. 

"I know one thing I would have changed if I could." I teased. "We would have had more kids!"

Caleb laughed. "Yes! And we would have gotten married earlier!"

"Definitely!" I laughed, remembering how miserable we had been the last half of our engagement year.

Caleb was wonderful. He always knew what to say. 

He held me close and soon fell asleep. 

I couldn't sleep though. The cool darkness slowed my thoughts so I could sort them out. Why was anger the emotion I felt when I heard that Jonah was at the hospital? Wouldn't concern, sympathy, or even fear, make more sense? What was wrong with me? 

What if it wasn't Jonah I was angry at? 

Maybe I was angry at myself because I, the nurse, should have been able to prevent this. I should have noticed he was favoring one leg. I should have thought about the risk of blood clots and warned him about sitting too much. I should have kept him from becoming a tow truck driver. It is a very dangerous profession!

What was I thinking? 

Did I really think I had the power to prevent the blood clot? And, even if I did, would I have really kept him from following his passion?

How silly of me!

"I'm sorry for getting mad." I whispered into the darkness, to no one in particular.

I fell asleep imagining what my life might have looked like if I followed my passion. What was my passion. Did I have one?

A Wasted Life (Intro and Chapter 1)

 

Introduction

This story began two and a half decades ago when I was in college. It appeared on the page late one night at my writing partner’s house. We munched on popcorn as we typed away. She wrote poetry, and I wrote stories! We both loved this story, but somehow it never got finished. I felt like I didn’t have enough life experiences to write it.

My friend seemed so much older: married with children! She must have been in her thirties! Haha! Those were the days.

Now, here I sit, after midnight, in another time and space. I don’t know why I decided to try this story at this time. The floppy disk I saved it on might still be around here somewhere, but it would be an antique for my laptop. I don’t need it anyway, the story lives inside of me. It has been here all this time, and it has changed, as I have. Hopefully, for the better. Though part of me wonders if it will be as interesting as my naïve, young adult self, wrote it a long time ago.

One thing I changed, just this week, is the main character. I think that has been my problem all along. I had the wrong person as the main character.

 

 

Chapter One

He Never Did Listen to Me

 

“You could have been a doctor! You could have saved people’s lives! You could have saved YOUR life!” I said to the form on the hospital bed.

I stood in the doorway, too afraid of my own emotions to get any closer. There he was, just as I had expected to find him. Broken and frail, yet still smiling – no LAUGHING at me. That silly grin and twinkle in his eyes. I could see it all from here. How could I love and hate someone all at once? My youngest brother.

I had been twelve when he was born, almost a teenager. He was MY baby. No, not like THAT. I mean, I was his favorite! I could get him to burp when no one else could. Later, it was my bed he crawled into. I even taught him to read. We were playing in the tree fort. I wrote him a little story using his name and a few short, easy words.

“God loves Jonah.

Jonah loves God.”

I had him practice until he had it … well, memorized probably. Mom was so pleased she said I could do his reading with him from then on. We read in the fort, in the hammock, in the boat, and snuggled on the couch.

That was when I was seventeen, and Jonah was five. That was before I became an adult. -before I turned selfish.

I don’t think he ever accepted the fact that I was an adult. Which is strange because I highly doubt he remembers when I wasn’t an adult.

Poor kid had abandonment issues because his SISTER moved away and left him behind. With his own, biological parents!

Grandpa and Grandma tried hard to be supportive of my parents’ choice to have five kids AND homeschool, but I think they worried we wouldn’t get a real education. They started a fund when each of us were born to use for college. I used mine to go through nursing school. All our siblings went to college and got good jobs.

And then there was Jonah. Our local college has a program where high schoolers can take college classes: but Jonah just wasn’t feeling it. When he was eighteen, he still wasn’t ready for college. An uncle invited him to help him build tiny houses.

 He was so excited the day he left. His Toyota pickup piled up with all his belongings. I was pregnant and had a toddler on my hip. He had laughed at me that day too. That teasing little brother laugh.

“Be careful!” I told him. “Make sure you use safety gear! Don’t cut any fingers off!”

“Why not?” he laughed “You don’t work at the ER anymore anyway. Don’t worry!”

“It’s okay for him to take a year off before college.” My Mom assured me. “Each person has a different path. We can’t really force anyone to be something they are not. The Bible says, ‘Raise up a child in the way he should go’ only God knows the path that is best for Jonah. I don’t want to be the one to stand in the way of God’s perfect plan for Jonah’s life.”

I knew she was right then, but now I wasn’t sure. Now that he lay in that hospital bed broken and hurting.

“You promised me you wouldn’t get hurt!” I pouted, as if a person can keep such a promise.

He mumbled something, but I couldn’t hear him, so I shuffled closer to the bed.

“That was when I left to build tiny houses, not as a tow truck driver!” he defended himself.

I scowled “You didn’t have to be a tow truck driver. You could have used the money for any career! I always thought you would have been an excellent doctor. If you had received ANY medical training at all, you would have known not to ignore a warm, swollen leg. You could have died from that blood clot!"

I was still angry.

"You chose this path!"

A hot tear rolled down my cheek.

“Yep” he said softly, “I chose this path, and, if I had the opportunity to choose again, I would still choose THIS.”

I stood in the quiet. My mind numb. Wishing I could wake up and all of this would be a dream. Wishing I could turn back time and… and what? What would I change? Did I really think that I would have done a better job of managing Jonah’s life than he had? Was I really that controlling?

Suddenly, I knew nothing.

A nurse came in and I wandered out the door and down the hall. It was so strange being the one leaving the patient’s room. -the one asking the questions instead of giving the answers.

Question like: Who was your visitor? 

Just his controlling big sister.

 Or was she just being helpful?

Who was he? -this man, laying on the bed, telling her he was perfectly capable of making his own life choices and willing to accept the consequences of those actions.

She laughed at herself. Of course he was right.

But did he have any idea how the consequences of his actions would snowball, affecting people he loved and even some he had never met?

 

 

 

Better Than Seven Sons

 In today's world having SEVEN sons might not seem like a blessing, but in Naomi's world having sons was every woman's dream.

This time of year, my mind often wanders to the book of Ruth. Maybe it is because the grass is often tall and reminds me of the barley fields where Ruth gleaned. But this year it's not young, brave, kind Ruth I'm thinking of, but Naomi.

I know why. 

It's because I started a new chapter of my life this year. I'm a grandma. 

As I held this precious little boy, I suddenly felt empathy for dear Naomi. I wondered what it meant that Naomi became Obed's nurse. 🤔 Maybe Ruth was busy running the household and Naomi had more time to sit and hold the baby and take him for walks and stop and look at interesting rocks and plants. 

Her friends and neighbors were so happy to see dear Naomi carrying a precious little one around town again.

You see... a couple decades before this, a much younger Naomi was often seen chasing around not one, but two happy little boys, in this same small town. It seems everyone knew her. Naomi: the pleasant one.

I picture her as friendly and optimistic. - a smile on her face as she chatted with the other women in the marketplace and at the well.

When the drought came the love of her life, Elimelech, decided to move her and the boys to Moab. I wonder if she was excited to go, or sad to leave her friends. Maybe she tried to make it a fun adventure for her boys.

 I know she kept their culture's traditions alive in her home, because her daughter-in-law, Ruth knew the God of Naomi.

I know she was kind and loving because Orpah and Ruth WANTED to go with her. I presume she was like a mother to them. They preferred to live in widowhood with her than to go home. Orpah was finally convinced to return home, to her parents, but Ruth refused.

You know how in some cultures people change their names throughout their lives? I can see why. The name, Naomi, just didn't fit her anymore. Naomi means "pleasant" or "delight". Her life was far from either!

Naomi's life started out good, it seems. She married and had two sons. Life was pleasant.

Then the famine hit.

But that was okay. They could move to a better area.

Her husband died. It broke her heart, but at least her sons were grown so she had someone to care for her.

Her sons married Moabite girls. They were so sweet. It was fun to teach them the ways of her people. 

Her sons died. Both of them! Without having any children.

Suddenly Naomi fell into a deep depression. This was more than she could bear.  Some people sleep when they are depressed and some start walking. 

walking and walking... somewhere... anywhere but here where all the pain is, the bad memories...

Naomi had heard that the drought was over back home. She would go home. -go home and die. Alone and empty. The drought was over at home, but it was at its worse for Naomi! The emptiness inside her was worse than cracked ground thirsty for rain. She began to pack her bags.

The girls packed too. Of course they were going. They lived with Naomi. They had lost their husbands too. All they had was each other.

Naomi looked at those two sweet girls. She remembered when she was young, before Elimelech died. How naive she had been as she packed the bags to come to Moab. She couldn't let them make the same mistakes she had.

"Stay here." she said sadly. "Go home to your families. May God bless you with new husbands who are kind to you as you have been kind to my sons and me."

"Noooo!" BOTH girls cried. "We want to go with you to YOUR people!"

I wonder if Naomi thought about her people: the Jews. People chosen by God. Yet, people who had suffered so much, even in those early days.

 No, those sweet girls should stay where they belong. She couldn't bear the thought of them suffering like she had.

You know the story. Orpah was convinced and, through tears, hugged Naomi and went home to her own family. 

But Ruth wouldn't let go. She wouldn't leave. 

Sometimes we know too much, those of us who count our age in decades. We have seen and experienced things that sober us. This path called life isn't a fun adventure. It might not be a pleasant thing that waits for us around the bend.

Let her learn her own way, Naomi. Let Ruth walk the path you did. Maybe it will be better for her. And, even if it isn't, maybe, as she has watched you handle life's trials, maybe she will be stronger. Don't tell her it won't be a good experience. Do you really think having her go home, to her family, will be any better? She needs you. In your brokenness, in your pain. Yes, even if you change your name to Mara. She needs you!

I always saw how much Naomi needed Ruth and how brave Ruth was, but suddenly I see a young bride turned widow, heartbroken, clinging to someone who has shown her a better way to do life.

How is this way better, Ruth? Can't you see the sorrow it brings?

No, Naomi. Ruth sees something more in you and she longs for the place YOU call HOME! She longs to join the people who know how to mourn, but also know how to rejoice! She is willing to give up all she has ever known to have HOPE!

What hope does Naomi have? Maybe she doesn't seem like she has hope, as she walks down that long, dusty road. As she arrives at her town and bitterly tells her friends she isn't the "Naomi" who left here a decade ago. She isn't pleasant and cheerful. She doesn't want to chat about all the silly little things she used to talk about. 

What is wrong with being quiet sometimes, Naomi? What is wrong with going home empty? 

Her friends came around her. Dear relatives took her and Ruth in. Gently. Allowing her to provide for her own needs as much as she could, but quietly leaving bundles of grain in Ruth's path. 

As Naomi ate the bread, made from the barley grown in her hometown, maybe she realized that she did have something to offer Ruth. 

What Ruth had seen a glimpse of in Naomi, back in the country of Moab, was a way of life here in Bethlehem, Judea. 

As Naomi watched Ruth thriving, she softened. -not like she had been as a girl, but like a sweet grandma whose smile draws small children to her lap. It wasn't long before her lap was full. -a dear little boy, named Obed. 

Her friends were so happy. Their Naomi was back! Laughing and talking, a baby in her arms. This is our Naomi! This is our friend! 

Somehow, I don't think Naomi was watching the reactions of her friends though. I kinda think she was watching Ruth. The joy she had as she embraced Naomi's culture and religion witnessed to Naomi as well. It healed her. 

"She is better to you than seven sons!" her friends declared.

Yes. She was.

I imagine Ruth looking at Naomi and thinking the same thing. Where would she be if it wasn't for Naomi? 

Joseph: Our Brother

 

(Genesis 45)

We never guessed that he might be our brother!

He had the appearance of an Egyptian. The authority of a KING! We bowed before him. (Only Pharoah was greater.)

We were aliens from a foreign land, here in this land of plenty. So far away from home. He tested us until he was satisfied. He was a powerful man, not at all like our annoying little brother.

Yet here he was speaking OUR language. Telling us that ALL of this had been part of God's plan. Yes, we had been angry at him. We wanted him gone. -out of the picture...so very long ago. No, it wasn't really us sending him away. God sent him away so he could save us. And not just us. People from all over the known world. Hungry people in need of saving. Our little brother, our savior? Who would have thought...?

"Come!" he invited. "To the place prepared for you."

He hugged us and cried... we all cried.

It was really HIM!

Why had it taken us so long to see?

The Egyptians thought they knew who he was. But they were wrong.

To be fair, we thought we knew who he was, and we were wrong too!

We were wrong when we thought he was an arrogant little kid. 

We were also wrong when we thought he was an Egyptian.

The day we realized who he was... the day he spoke to us in our mother tongue and asked us how our father was... THAT DAY was the day everyone else also learned his true identity.

"Joseph's family has come!" they whispered. 

News traveled quickly until everyone knew.

And they were glad, so very glad, for OUR LITTLE BROTHER

- and FINALLY... so were we. 

Blessed is HE who comes in the name of the LORD!

Covered With Glory

 

May 10th, 2024 at 11:00 PM I opened my front door and peeked at the sky expecting to be disappointed, again. How many times had I dragged my family outside in the cold darkness to see something spectacular only to be disappointed? 

(earlier that evening)

 Luke humored me and we sat outside for about an hour, our lawn chairs facing the northern horizon, not sure what we were even looking for. Grandpa kept turning the porch light on for us so we could "see better". Maybe we saw a faint purple, or green between the trees, but probably it was just our imagination. No use calling anyone else to join us. It was just like the other times, only this time it wasn't as cold. And somehow it didn't seem quite so dark, even though the moon was New. 

We went inside and Luke went to bed, exhausted from a long week of work. I smiled, happy to have spent some quiet moments outside with my soulmate, thankful for the slower pace of Sabbath. It had been an unseasonably warm day. I couldn't decide whether to open the door and let in the cooler night air, or shut the door and keep the dark, and what roams in the dark out! 

Finally, the busyness of the day caught up with me and I decided to go to bed. "We don't get northern lights here." I thought, "and if, by some odd chance they might be seen at this latitude, we wouldn't be able to see them from our woods. -not where we live."

I decided to open our front door one more time. 

The door that faces south.

What I saw was nothing like the pictures. In fact, if I hadn't heard there was a possibility of seeing them, I wouldn't have given, what I was seeing, a second thought. I looked UP! Not just out into the night, but up into the patch of sky above my porch. Beams, pillars of light spread out across the sky! 

"It's here!" I shouted "Luke! Are you still awake? If you aren't, wake up!" he came out and we stared at the sky. 

It was so bright outside, yet I couldn't locate the source of the light. Faint wisps that looked very much like light pollution, or thin clouds, appeared in the sky.

I got comfortable and stared into the darkness. The more I looked, the more I saw!

 My first thought was how easy this would be to miss- to not see. I wondered how many times these lights had been dancing above my head and I didn't even realize they were there! Faint whispers. A breeze. A gentle glow. Sights very easy to brush off as something ORDINARY and INSIGNIFICANT! 

My second thought was: If THIS is how amazing the glory of the sun is... that created fireball in the sky... how awesome the Glory of God must be!

Then, my daughter came out with her phone. We had heard there was more to see than what our eyes could capture. What our eyes saw as a faint whisper of pink above the trees was a fuchsia blanket that covered the whole sky! What we saw as a thin, wispy cloud was a vibrant-colored angel defending our earth from solar wind particles.

Now that I knew what I was seeing, my eyes could see it a bit too. Look! Those "clouds" were moving and dancing. The color WAS all over the sky! I could see it now. Faintly, but the more I sat still and watched the more I saw.

I am not good at handling unusual situations. 

I didn't think this was important enough to wake up more people. :(

I still thought this was more common than I realized, or that tomorrow's show would be better, or that others wouldn't be impressed.

So, I sat still and watched.

 Half imagining, half seeing... the train of His robe filling the temple as the cloudy curtain grew to cover a huge portion of the sky. ...a round ball of light with another circle inside of it...

The Glory of God COVERING the whole earth! As the camera screen lit up with colors more vibrant than exist in nature.

WHAT IS REAL?

Could it be that my fleshly eyes cannot see what is really there, right in front of me? I can catch glimpses and hints, but not really SEE!

"Glory, glory. The whole earth is filled with His Glory." I whispered, because it seemed wrong to shout. I wanted to sing, but that didn't seem quite right either, for it seemed that this music was enjoyed with the eyes instead the ears.

I didn't know what to do with this experience. Part of me wanted to say it was imagined and I was overreacting. But the pictures the next morning proved that the opposite was true. 

I had no idea how awesome, or rare, what I was viewing was. 

I left before it was over, thinking I could watch it again tomorrow, or the next day. Not knowing this may have been my only chance to experience this.

Of course there is a spiritual lesson in this. Many lessons. New and peculiar lessons! Lessons that I am sure you became aware of too, if you happened to be up in the middle of the night and lived in an area where you could see the show.

The spiritual realm is a great mystery. 

Unseen angels are protecting us from invisible dangers.

 It sounds made up. It's just cotton candy clouds, or my eyes imagining a hint of color. There is no such thing as Aurora. But it is more real that the things we can see in the bright light of the day.

Why did the night seem so bright when the moon had already set, and the colors of Aurora Borealis were so faint to the naked eye? Is that a taste of the brightness of God's Glory? The glory that will light that Holy City! The Glory that is covering the earth, that will cover the whole earth.

That Sabbath I read Revelation 4 and Ezekiel 1, wondering if what Ezekiel and John saw was similar to the pictures shown on my daughter's phone. 

But the picture that impressed me most was the picture on my little android phone taken at the same time and place as the picture above:

I admit it. I don't know how to take pictures. :D

I WAS using the "night" setting! 

But somehow, instead of enhancing the beauty, my camera showed even LESS of what my eyes could see!

Why do I still have this black picture on my camera? Why didn't I delete it immediately? I wasn't sure until I read this verse: Job 3:20 "Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul?"  Maybe I should name my camera "Job"! lol  

At this horrific time of tragedy in Job's life, he WANTED it to be DARK! He didn't want LIFE. He didn't want SUNSHINE. He wanted to sit in his misery, bitterness and pain. But near the end of the Book of Job he is enlightened. God shows him His Power and a taste of His Glory! So, in the last chapter Job admits: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now my EYE seeth!" He had an iphone now! HAHA! He could see the glory surrounding him and defending him from things he didn't even know existed! Things too wonderful for his human brain to comprehend!

Suddenly it was okay that he didn't understand. 

And I like to think the light didn't hurt his eyes as much.

Seeing the natural laws working as they were created to, helped me trust that God is working in the spiritual realm as well. 

Maybe our circumstances in life affect how we see the world around us. Maybe it is hard to see the glory that shines so brightly in other people's worldview. Maybe we shut our eyes to the beauty, explain it away, or ignore it. Or, maybe, the lens that we are looking through is not capturing anything at all. All we see is the darkness. Something to shut out and run from.

Next time your world view looks like my second picture, stop for a minute. Find a comfy spot on the grass and look UP! 

You just might notice that the night is a lot brighter than it seems. And that there is beauty even on the darkest night of the month!

And back in the physical realm, if we get another chance to see the Aurora Borealis in our area, I'm not going to be embarrassed to swing my door open and wake up the whole family. Now that I think of it, I would rather them be disappointed that nothing happened, than to be disappointed that they missed it! 

Come to think of it, maybe THAT paragraph isn't only talking about the physical realm either! ;)