The summer forecast held, and the skies are clear. We walk to the platform with the big Dobsonian telescope ready to work. All of us take turns gazing at the southern limb of the first quarter moon. Crater Moretus ‘stuck out’ at the terminator, so we dwell there for 30 minutes. I stay busy sketching between the telescope visits by my Lovely and our three visitors, who speak of the heavens.
Sultry summer evenings have weather patterns that tend to run in groups, so it was over two weeks before we saunter to the observing area again. This time it is just the two of us.
She gently wakes me saying, “It’s clear. The stars are out. Let’s go look.”
My struggles to consciousness take a few minutes but I grab a robe, sandals, red LED headlamp, and a sky map (planisphere). It’s that time of year when our NNE to SSW swath of open property nearly parallels the Milky Way, and we love to observe it. We comment to each other about the murky skies but are happy that our galaxy is detectable.
It’s two days later, but this time I wake her saying, “The sky is clearer tonight. I’m going out.”
I am a little ahead of her at the pad. It gives me time to set up a ‘gravity chair’ so she can tilt back and gaze at the ‘summer triangle’ directly overhead. She is excited as she finds the Coat Hanger Cluster. We survey it and everything we can around Cygnus with an 8×42 binoculars. Three meteors streak across the sky in the 30-minutes of observing.
So where is love? When our Creator makes a display of His heavens, it is personal to us. We talk and marvel of His provision for a clear sky, a comfortable way to observe, and an opportunity to enjoy time together. Or, perhaps it’s His oversight that made our separate paths merge to husband and wife in our older years. Or, it’s the wonder of the created heavens. Or, it’s just Him, who continues to guide our lives and make them whole. There is nothing like that peace Christ Jesus gives. We frequently speak of it.
Two days ago I made a homemade love-note. I think it’s number 40 in seven years. The front has a rough picture representing the piedmont of North Carolina and the Milky Way. Seven pages wait to be filled as we will go back and forth for the remainder of the summer. Today my Lovely writes back, speaking of the heavens.
It’s a good day to give thanks.
“Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these?
He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name… Isaiah 40:26
