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Two Tales of the Night Sky

"Let there be lights ... and let them be for signs"

by Glory Sasikala Franklin:

We were living in Coimbatore and our houseowner (and neighbor) was a physics professor. He was also a licensed pilot. I was at that time a housewife. I am also a very patient listener. He would often come to talk to me as I dried out the clothes and tell me experiences from his rather varied life. He also showed me the various scientific projects that he undertook. I cannot say I really understood all of it. Physics is one of my favourite subjects but he was at a much higher level and too mathematical. But one subject where we struck common ground was astronomy. My interest in the sky is insatiable. Here again, his was a statistical  and mathematical interest. For a change, so was mine,  though my interest always borders on the aesthetic, the philosophical and theological. This was in 1997 or 1998, I don't remember which year but a comet had appeared and we were both very excited about it. He seemed however to derive as much, if not more satisfaction from wanting to show it to me as seeing it himself. So enthusiastic that he came knocking at our door around midnight. My husband and I followed him out and looked to where he pointed at the sky but all I could see was a star a little bigger than the others.  No big deal in fact.

Frustrated and disappointed he said, "It's all these city lights reaching up to the sky. I wish they would all disappear." And as if by magic the city immediately went dark. And there was this glorious speeding streak across the sky ...

The poor man was stunned into silence and I had to bend down my head for a moment and say, "Thank you God."

Harold McCurdy:

Meteor

When softly and slowly fell the other night
That meteor flaring through my screen of trees,
Maybe I only was privy to the sight.

Eastward it fell of great Orion's knees
And his dog Sirius; southward of Jupiter;
And it was very bright, brighter than these.

If others glimpsed it (as, say, Lucifer,
Or some dull chunk of matter being consumed),
Let their view of it be as they prefer.

To me it was a miracle, subsumed
Within the ancient mystery and profound
From which the whole starred universe once bloomed.

For look! I was alone on private ground
Awed by the starry heavens at Christmas Eve,
Yet sorrowful, and in self-pity drowned,

Pleading, as one who clamors to believe,
"Oh God, whom none can see and live, do you
Care in the least for us? Did you conceive

Us and this world and come incarnate too
To lodge here? "Me, Lord, have you loved? Me, heard?"
--And then, abruptly, silently, fell and grew

That flare of light, that bright, that lordly word.

If you're concerned about innocent children being terrorized by the debilitating fear that they're in danger of an "eternal hell" when they grow up, please read this article No Hell in the Bible before continuing.

If you're interested in "things mysterious," you may be interested in these other Mysterious Ways pages:

A Direct Experience with Universal Love
Two Tales of the Night Sky
Genie-Angels
Darkness
Michael, Wonderful and Glorious
The Poisonous Tomato
Of Mother Teresa, Angels and the Poorest of the Poor
Thy Will Be Done (Iron Lung)
Did Jesus Walk on the Water?

Mysterious Ways Index

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