Perseid Shower

Well, even in Morgantown, it proves a bit difficult to watch this meteor shower, but I'm hoping to make it out to a place that it might be a bit more visible.

Just hearing about it has gotten me thinking. My ancestors used to set up mounds and earthworks that were oriented to the night sky and the cycles of the sun and moon. Pretty crazy how much we are disconnected from the rhythm's of this world. I mean, when was the last time you were just looking in awe at the night sky? How many of us live in a place where the night sky is even visible.

I wonder what our lives would look like if we were somehow able to go back in time a bit. What would it be like without iphones and laptops (like the one I'm using to type this blog)? What if the only music we heard was live, and we didn't have to pay exorbitant amounts of money to hear it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not becoming a Luddite--I really enjoy the technology we have at our disposal. At the same time, I am very aware that a laptop is no replacement for a night in the woods next to a campfire, or conversation with friends while gazing into the night sky.

I hope you can find a place to view the meteor shower, and that you can view it with friends at that.

May we never lose the wonder that our ancestors had with the majesty and marvel of creation.

Night Sky

Last night I drove out with some friends to my friend Jeremiah's house to watch a meteor shower. Ricky Beamer took the picture above (among many others) and posted them to facebook if you wanna see more of em. I tried to take some photos with my camera, but unfortunately I just couldn't get anything but darkness--no stars, nothing.

So a half dozen of us took some blankets, and laid down on a hill close to Jeremiah's house in Preston county. It was really relaxing to just spend some time like that. I realized that most of my life I have rarely taken time to lay on the ground and just look up at the sky for an extended period of time. The night sky is beautiful. The daytime sky is pretty cool too, but I just seem to get so busy in the comings and goings of life that I fail to really appreciate the beauty of looking upward.

Of course there are all kinds of spiritual implications to this. We need to not be so busy that we forget to look to God, and ideas like that are definitely true, and came to my mind last night.

But much of the evening I thought about two things. Firstly, I thought about how the heavens declare the glory of God. I thought about how vast the heavens are, and how much more vast Christ is, and how it would be easy to begin to explore the heavens and get distracted in the process, but how wonderful it is to explore the created order and see the fingerprints of God--everywhere.

The second thing I thought about was having undistracted times with people. I thought about my tribe's land, and how we would often stay up half the night talking about Jesus, and drumming and singing, and watching meteor showers on our little plot of land. We would share stories with one another, and as the weekend continued on, life would take on more and more of a simple beauty. I feel like last night touched on that simple beauty. There is something about connecting with others, connecting with creation, connecting with yourself, and most importantly connecting with God that happens most artfully as we leave most of our daily distractions behind.

I hope you are able to take some time to set aside the busy plodding of life to soak in the special moments with friends and family over the holidays. Maybe give the television a rest for a bit. Shut off your computer. Turn off your cell phone. And enjoy the simple beauty of a night with friends and family.