Did it really have to be like this?
Tor Even Mathisen, Flowing Auroras Over Tromsø, Norway. This is today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). Clicking on the image will take you to the video. APOD is my home page and it should be yours, too
I have never seen an actual aurora, but I could have, twice.
The first time, I was flying from somewhere to somewhere else, and was rather far north. It was night. My window faced south (I am still, at age 42, a window fan). On deplaning, I heard the north-facing-window people talking about the splendid northern lights they had seen. I groaned deeply and inwardly.
The second time, I was teaching an astronomy class and a student raised her hand and asked if I had seen the nice auroras the night before. This was in Georgia. I said No, are you sure it was the aurora? Yes, she said. Still skeptical, I thought about it a little. This far south we only see the really high-up auroras, which are always red. What color were they? I asked. Red, she answered. I groaned deeply and inwardly. Later I saw in the local paper later a nice story about how amazing the auroras had been. Irony 101, Lesson 4: At the time of the auroras I was sitting in my living room and preparing my astronomy lecture.
One day, I’ll see them for real. That will be a good day.
You know what, though? Just this morning I received a little compensation for this rather profound hole in my life. This amazing time-lapse movie of the northern lights, taken by one Tor Even Mathisen, a smart young Norwegian who is really good with a camera, is truly a beautiful thing. I am thankful for thoughtful people like Mr. Mathisen who create such things and make them freely available to people he doesn’t even know.
Did the world have to be so heart-breakingly beautiful? I mean, seriously. Did nature have to be so generous, so seemingly gratuitous, in its displays? And the thing is, as many scientists know so well, nature’s beauty only begins at the surfaces; it compounds rapidly beneath. The richness increases as one digs deeper. Science does not kill wonder, as many sentimental folks like to think. It enhances it.
Sometimes God seems absent from my life, very absent. Such has been the case lately. And I know that auroras, no matter how beautiful, don’t prove a single solitary thing about God. But nature is a balm, I tell you. One good look at this video and I am a little changed, a little more oriented toward hope and toward faith and toward that great love we call God.
I am so grateful for this world.
Happy Thanksgiving, dear readers.
