Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!
Yesterday's newspaper alerted me to the fact that we had experienced an amazing display of the Northern Lights Sunday night and early Monday morning. It went on to state that we might expect more of the same last night. Here's the accompanying photo from the paper:
By the time I went to bed at 9:30 they were not visible. I awakened at 1:00AM. The light coming in through the slits in the blinds looked strange. I got up, grabbed my glasses, and tiptoed into the living room to peer out the sliding glass door. Sure enough, the Northern Lights were putting on a fantastic show. I've seen the Northern Lights before but they were never as amazing as they were last night. I'll never forget the first time. Jonathan was an infant. I was sitting on the sofa nursing him when my husband drove up after working out. It was probably about 10PM (back when we were young and kept different hours). He said "Gina, come out here right now!" He sounded strange so I put Jonathan down and ran out into the driveway. He said "Look at the sky. What is that?" There was this bright white light just sort of moving around overhead in waves. I'd never seen anything like it before. We stood there just gawking. He said "maybe the Lord is coming back!" We watched for a few minutes and then it dawned on me that maybe it was the Northern Lights. Neither of us had ever seen them before. All we knew was that they were something you saw in Alaska and the Arctic and were colorful. We'd never heard of them down in the lower 48, nor had we ever heard of them being white. It was pretty amazing and somewhat frightening. Imagine what ancient people must have thought of them!
We did find out in the paper that what we had seen was indeed the Northern Lights, though I kind of liked the idea of the Lord returning better. A couple of years later we were driving through Montana in the middle of the night on vacation headed to Colorado and were treated to an entertaining display of the Northern Lights along the northern horizon for most of the night. Again, they were just white, but they danced and played along the horizon, entertaining us as we trekked along Interstate 90.
Last night the entire sky, from western to eastern horizon, was filled with white dancing lights. The intensity would change from dim to brilliant, as if someone were holding a spotlight and pointing it at Orion, then the light would move, as if being blown by the wind - and it was extremely windy last night. There were bands of this light waving and undulating, dimming and brightening, all across the sky. Fingers of light would reach up from the horizon, shoot straight up overhead, then dim and disappear. When I watched it the light was only white, but a coworker told me that earlier, at about 11PM, it was green and red. If you've never seen them, they are a sight to see. They're nothing like the photos we've all seen from Alaska, but they are no less awesome in their brilliant white splendor. I do think when the Lord returns the sky will be filled with a display that will put the Alaskan Northern Lights to shame. He's just treating us to a glimpse of His glory in the meantime.
