Tiny pieces of the tail of a comet grazed my house last night. Yours too. They may as well have landed on the roof. Fiery, wish-worthy, shooting stars danced in every corner of the sky, lighting up the night, and our dreams, with ancient stardust.
The Perseid meteor shower travels trillions of miles to put on the spectacular, annual fireworks show—and to shake us out of our earthly coma.
When we stare at the sky, we can’t help but ask the big questions.
After, “How could forever be that far?” comes the inevitable, “How can I be this small?”
And the thought, "What kind of powerful God could have concocted this universe?"
Perseid gives us a pajama-clad chance to see how small we are and how great the universe is.
We are all part of this.
This star stuff. This oneness. This tapestry woven from the same elements.
This omnipresent force of love that envelopes every being and entity as far as the eye can see, and forever again farther.
That’s pretty comforting, really, when we are brave enough to keep asking for assistance and small enough to lean in silently to receive the answers.
In the words of my daughter, “Sometimes it’s good to feel small.” Yep, Maya, it is.
Because when we pray the prayer,
Grant me strength when I feel small,
Grant me faith when I lose sight,
Grant me hope when all seems lost,
Grant me grace in morning's light,
we should have no doubt that
the God of all things,
the God of solar systems and stars,
the God of comets and planets,
the God of oceans and mountains,
the God of you and me,
will have no problem being
the God of our pain and loss,
the God our strength and faith,
the God of our fear and doubt,
the God of our hope and grace,
the God of our morning light.
No problem at all.
So I keep asking for assistance. And leaning in silently for the help that always comes.
Thank you, God, for tending to the stardust. The morning light. And me.
In The World:
This year, the annual Perseid meteor shower is best seen Friday and Saturday, August 11 and 12. Get up in the middle of the night and sit outside where you can see the sky. You can even sit in the dark by a window. It’s worth the lack of sleep to open your mind to the vastness of the universe as you watch her show of beauty.
In The Heart:
In my time of greatest need, I have perfect faith that when I ask with a humble heart, I will receive everything I need from the hand of God.
Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe—a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. —Albert Einstein
