The Light Show

We got the girls out of bed at midnight.  The Daddy got the girls piled in the car, cozied up in jammies and blankets, then drove circles around the cul-de-sac, trying to calm our crying Bebe while I grabbed a few other last minute incidentals.  He pulled into the garage just long enough for me to climb in shotgun and then we were off down the Seward highway, away from the lights of the city that cannot outshine the white moon.  The aurora forecast was impressive and it did not disappoint.  Not in the least.  A thirty minute drive led us to Beluga Point.  Then just a little waiting and we had the most amazing display playing out above us.  Aurora Borealis.  Aurora Borealis!  I've always wanted to see it and tonight I did!  Soft, green swaths of light ebbing and flowing across the sky.  It was like watching some celestial current work its way in ripples over and around pebbles and stones in an aerial creek-bed.  My sweetheart told me that he'd been told the lights crackle faintly as they move, but we were never quite still enough to hear.  We sat there in the darkness, that wasn't very dark.  Craning our necks and letting the wind blow in the car a bit for the sake of a better view through the open moon-roof.  Curly stuck her head and hands through, shouting "Boo-yah!" and deeming everything "awesome!"  Little B was more quiet about it, but clearly happy just to be out of bed doing anything in the middle of the night.  Bebe was nursing (as always).  I had my sweater wrapped around her like a blanket and I could just see her profile etched out beyond the shadow of her hood.   Beautiful and soft.  The lights kept shimmering above us, with the moon and the stars shining through.  And that's when it struck me again.  What an incredible life this is.  What an incredible, gorgeous world.
I thought of the God who made it for me, for my us, for all His children.  Alaska has such raw, dramatic examples.  Stark, bold, harsh at times, and breathtaking everyday.  He created this earth as a staging ground for us to embrace challenging, edifying gifts.  I thought of how we individually have, and are expected to use, the capacity to add beauty to the world; as human beings our station may be humble but our souls are not small.  And though they may be subtle, neither are our gifts.  God made a world grand enough to showcase each one.  Sometimes I struggle to include myself in that.  It seems...too much for me.  Like a task I am completely unequal to, one I wouldn't even know how to approach attempting.  But lately I have had more perspective, I've been able to recognize more happiness trailing behind us, spreading and dispersing like a wake behind a boat.  Effects I didn't understand were being created as I fought to plow through the water that was then ahead of our family.  I still, honestly, have trouble identifying what exactly I might contribute.  I can see, though, that maybe sometimes to just live a good and happy life is brilliant enough.  Quiet expressions can be spectacular.  I saw that tonight.