I remember as a kid getting up in the early morning hours and watching the Perseid Meteor shower. So called because of its location in the Perseus constellation. In reality,it’s not a shower, but the remnants of a comet that has left debris behind and the earth is moving through the debris field. In this case, it’s the Swift-Tuttle comet that shows up every 135 years or so and leaves behind all this wonderful debris that gives us the show.
So, I set my alarm for 4:24, but awoke at 3:55. I made coffee, put on my jacket, and stepped out to the driveway and began looking up into the sky. After a few minutes of my eyes adjusting, a meteor would enter the atmosphere dozens of miles above me and burn up, leaving a image of a trail behind. Some were fast and small, others had longer tails and were seen a few micro-seconds longer. Regardless, after about 10 minutes I had seen 15 or so streak across the sky.
The other amazing thing were all the man-made satellites that were in constant movement. Several on a north to south, and a south to north, trajectory. Moving quickly across the sky, taking several minutes to disappear in the haze of the sky or behind the tree line. Two satellites that were just minutes apart headed south reached a certain spot and both seemed to glow really bright like they had turned a spotlight on! Of course, they were probably getting the full attention of the sun since it was causing the sky to get light.
I realized that, other than the moon, these satellites are not reflecting their own light, but the light of the star we call our Sun. High in the sky, they were being impacted by the Sun that we could not yet see. Much like most of what we are – we do not shine our own brilliance, but are merely a reflection of things around us. Some reflect more brightly than others, while many are just dimly seen. I want to be a bright reflection of all the intelligence God has given me, the love of my family, the joy of my wife, the specialness of my kids!
What an amazing 30 minute display of the heavenly skies and mans ingenuity on this Friday, the 13th of August, 2010…