Aurora Borealis
I have never seen the aurora borealis, but I've seen pictures and video film of it. I'm not lucky enough to live in the polar altitudes of the hemispheres where you get your best viewing of the "northern or southern lights", but then I'd bet they don't see beautiful harvest moons over a warm palm-treed Gulf beach like I get to. Sometimes life is a trade-off ... you get to have some of the really good stuff that's out there, while others get to have some different, but equally good, stuff.
I've never really understood how the aurora borealis works, what makes the lights appear to dance across the sky. It has something to do with electron particles from space being dragged into the earth's magnetic field at the poles; when they collide with natural gases in the earth's atmosphere they give energy to the atoms and molecules, which then give off this energy as light. It is similar to the way fluorescent and neon lights work. Each gas gives off its own personal color of light ... oxygen gives off green light, nitrogen gives off red, and sodium yellow. I just know it is fascinating to observe, eerie but beautiful!
I don't know how microwaves work either, but I know that if I put my food in the compartment and follow some simple rules, my food will be changed from cold and uninviting to warm and tasty. The same goes for computers. I can't begin to understand how they do what they do, transferring unseen data from my computer to a server, to another server, and on to another computer thousands of miles away, where someone else can now see it. I just know that if I invest in the computer system and follow some pre-designed guidelines, that it will happen for me. I suppose it would be a worthy educational experience to actually learn the technical jargon how it works, but I'm satisfied that I can observe how it works for others and know that it can work for me as well. I could understand if there was a direct, unbroken connection between the two computers; but to understand how data leaves one and somehow crosses open space to get to the other, that asks for a scientific "leap of faith."
That's the way it is with faith. Faith is trust. It is trusting in something very real, but yet intangible. It's stepping out over the ledge and trusting that someone, something is there to support you. You can't see it, but you can see the end result when you or someone else has it ... a changed lifestyle, a greater concern for others, a sense of peace and well-being, a joyful heart even though it may be breaking with unhappiness or in the midst of turmoil, a joyous and loving attitude.
I guess I don't understand why EVERYONE would not want to invest in a product like that. Financially, the cost is nothing. You are given an instructional manual; it even has the really important stuff already highlighted in red for you. You can even buy a "Faith for Dummies", in the form of a small, handheld size devotional booklet that connects directly to your soul to explain the difficult concepts. If you are having user problems, the world is full of friendly tech support, with group meetings at least once a week in practically every neighborhood. Many tech people will even come to your home to assist you. You are even given direct access to the CEO in the head office, any time you have needs or thanks to send. And you don't have to understand all the technical jargon about how it works; you just know by observation and personal experience that it does.
I'm almost sorry I learned some of the "scientific" explanation for the aurora borealis phenomenon. I think you have to understand things of science to believe them, but you have to believe things in the spiritual world to understand them. Sometimes I think that when science attempts to explain away the how and why of natural occurrences, it takes the simple wonder and awe away from it. I like to think that the aurora borealis is really the continuing creative force at work in the world, a visual sign that God is still around and still creating a world filled with wonderful stuff for us. It's a constant source of love being released on this Earth, and it's there for us all! I don't have to understand why it happens or how it works ... but by the grace of God, I can just sit back and enjoy the wonder of it all.
© 1998
