This story recalls the visual images I experienced during a drive home from Seymour, TN on a November evening in 2003. I’d spent that day helping my Aunt Earle move her furniture to a condo and was driving home. I was so impressed by the visual experiences of that evening, I had to write it down that night before I could sleep.
After a full day of helping my aunt move to her new home, I was relaxing as I drove toward home along a familiar route. My old pick-up truck seemed to follow the road as if it knew the way since we’d traveled it many times. As I headed east on Boyd’s Creek Road, twilight was just beginning. It was that time between the last rays of sunlight and the first darkness of night, a time I’d enjoyed many times before. Something about twilight is always calming and peaceful, signaling the end of daily chores and a time of rest.
To the south, my view of the distant Smoky Mountains was
fading from sight and I began to see only the silhouettes of houses along the
sides of the road. The architectural
details visible in the light only minutes before had now disappeared and all that remained were the
hulking silhouettes of a few old Victorians, the straight lines of ranchers,
and the box shaped two bedroom bungalows. As darkness obscured the landscape,
new lights began to capture my attention.
Glowing lights, coming from the windows of houses. The soft, yellowish incandescent glow offered
a reassuring message that “folks were at home” resting from a days work;
perhaps enjoying an evening meal.
Occasionally, within the warm glow of window light, I’d catch flashes of
white light accompanied by dancing flashes of color; the dancing, ever changing
signature glow of a color television. No
doubt, folks were watching a TV show, the evening news, or just napping; bathed
in the light and sound of that hypnotic box.
About half-way down Boyd’s Creek, looking east, I began to
see a surreal and gigantic yellow sphere emerging on the horizon. The darkness of twilight had deepened and
only accentuated the marvelous splendor of a rising November moon. The air had cooled and the sky was crystal
clear, letting the brilliance of the full moon’s celestial light reflect back
to earth. The earth’s lower atmosphere so
magnified the moon that at one point it seemed to cover much of the distant
horizon. But as the earth’s rotation sped along, the sphere lifted higher and
higher and began to shrink into that familiar white circle of a bright full
moon. The sky was so clear that I had no
trouble seeing the lunar landscapes crater-pitted surface. It was easy to imagine the “man in the moon”
formed by the peaks and valleys on the moons surface. As I drove on eastward I could not help but
think of the millenniums of other men who also gazed at this amazing heavenly
display and wondered how it all happened.
Tonight that moon looked like something an artist had drawn in the sky, but
I know it is real and tangible. It was
only 34 years ago that a man actually climbed from a lunar landing craft and
stepped on to the moons surface. Those
of us who are old enough, remember it well; we were there with those explorers via
live television.
As I neared Highway 66 a new glow began to wash out some of
the moon’s brightness. Man made lights
casting their glow against the sky from the shopping malls, car headlights and
street lights snaking their way from Sevierville to Pigeon Forge. Turning north on Hwy. 66 and heading toward
I-40 I lost sight of the moon’s glow and faced instead the oncoming
lights from a multitude of automobiles. Driven no doubt by folks who motored toward their
evening destination, some toward home, others to a hotel along the route to
Gatlinburg. Reaching I-40 and turning east, the bright light of the moon was again squarely in front of my
windshield. Although the interstate was
busy with traffic, the moon had risen high enough now that the car lights could
not diminish its dominance in the evening sky.
It was now about 6 p.m. and all hint of twilight in the western sky had
vanished, all points of the compass were engulfed in the darkness of night
except for the eastern sky which was totally dominated by a brilliant moon.
After arriving home and finishing supper, the clock was moving toward 7 o’clock. About that time, our son Rob called and suggested I go out to see what was happening with the moon. I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about until he explained that we were to have a full lunar eclipse that evening and it would occur somewhere around 8:00 p.m. As I stepped outside, the sky was unclouded and free of any haze. The edge of earth’s shadow was just beginning to encroach on the left side of the moon. As time moved forward, the shadow of earth eventually obscured the entire surface of the moon, canceling out the moon’s white glow. Then, as the earth continued its predictable orbit, the moon began to reappear and finally resumed its full reflective light.
After some sixty years of living and having observed many full moons and other lunar eclipses, I think this was the most visually spectacular event I have ever witnessed. It was such an "in your face" statement to the world of an amazing Creator! It brought to mind two scriptural references, one in Genesis and one in the Psalms.
16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:16-18 New King James Version
Centuries later, the Psalmist
was right on target when he said, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.” Psalms 19:1
Almost coinciding with this lunar event, NASA had announced
only a few days before that Voyager I, an interstellar exploratory
satellite, was beginning to reach the outer limits of our solar system. It is
hard to comprehend, but can you grasp this?
Voyager I was launched into space in September1977. It has been traveling away from earth for all
this time. It is traveling at 39,000
miles per hour. If you do the math, it
is now 9.2 billion miles from earth. It
is projected that it will continue to travel away from earth into the vastness
of space well into the 21st Century.
Without today’s scientific data, the Psalmist didn’t have a clue about
the vastness of the universe, but his ancient words ring true in the face of
scientific exploration. “The heavens
tell of the glory of God. Their expanse
declares the work of His hands.”
WOW,
ain’t God big!
No comments:
Post a Comment