Beauty

Last night around 9:00 my husband got a phone call from a fellow astronomy-buff. He told Rocky that there was a good chance to see the Northern Lights that night. Rocky was at a stopping point in writing his grad school paper, and Abby was sound asleep, so we put on our coats and hats and walked down the street to the darker part of the neighborhood.

We didn't see much of anything except a greenish haze across the northern sky. We knew it was more than just the lights from the next city north of us, but said "if this is the Northern Lights, it's pretty boring." We stargazed for a couple minutes, then turned around and headed back to the house.

We were literally in the driveway, about to go inside, when we both said "what's that?!" as a long streak of greenish-white shot up from the horizon. We backtracked a few yards into the street and watched as the streak grew bigger, then turned red, then watched the entire northern sky come ablaze in greens and reds. We felt like little kids, full of giddiness and adrenaline as we hurried back to the part of the neighborhood without street lights. We sat on the curb, facing the northern sky, watching the colors slowly come ablaze, then fade, then come ablaze again. We quickly called our closest friends and family and told them to "look outside!!"

Even now I get shivers thinking about what we saw.

The display lasted about 10-15 minutes, and I tried to get a few pictures. My point-and-shoot camera doesn't have quite enough settings to get the desired result, but I adjusted the colors and contrast a bit in photoshop, and here is the best I could do:

And these were taken towards the very end of the display, so it barely even captures what we saw...

Have you ever seen the Northern Lights? This was the first time for both Rocky and me. Cross that off our bucket lists. :)

I'll leave you with the words a friend of mine posted on Facebook this morning, after having seen the lights last night.

We climb mountains and say that God is majestic.
We walk along a beach at sunset and proclaim that God is an artist.
We see amazing sites like the grand canyon and announce God's power.
We see the Northern Lights and declare it the glory of the Lord.
Now if only we could look in the mirror and see the same thing as we do when we look at the rest of God's creation.

Have a beautiful day!