Trails and Tales Contest Third Place Winner
Throughout my life, my family and I have been blessed to experience God’s wonder through His created world. From the towering Appalachians to the foamy seashore, to tiny green fern leaves and cascading creeks, all echo His praise, but none so remarkably as the night sky. To step out into the dark, still night and look up into the myriad of sparking, burning lights is an experience we never seem to tire of, one that draws us out time and again. The wonderful thing about stargazing is that all you need are your eyes, clear skies, and a heart open to behold the quiet wonders of creation. Through stargazing, God shows us His wonder, His beauty, and His creativity.
But some equipment is advantageous too. Our first glimpse of Saturn’s rings came with a little help from our telescope. I’m rather hopeless when it comes to anything requiring mechanics and building, but when my family got a telescope, my brother Nathan was quick to set it up and learn its ropes.
One night, while out stargazing in our driveway, he called us over. “It’s Saturn!” he enthusiastically told us.
We took turns peeking into the eyepiece. What we saw was astonishing. We could perfectly see the rings, delicately suspended around Saturn, which previously had been simply a bright dot in the sky. Now we could see with our own eyes what before we had relied on textbooks to tell us, and it was even more beautiful, more pristine than any of us could have imagined. We had seen a planet!
Another of our favorite night sky moments occurred in 2023, when my family saw a falling curtain of meteors, more than we had ever seen, or have seen since. It was the peak of the Perseid meteor shower in August. My brother had been keeping tabs on the night sky, so he was ready for it and excitedly informed us of the event. Unfortunately, however, top viewing hours were very early in the morning, not the ideal time for teenagers who like their sleep. Nevertheless, one morning I awoke to find that my brother had awakened my parents in the early hours, taken our mom outside, and seen so many meteors they couldn’t stop talking about it. I had missed it!
Hoping there was a chance we could see the meteor shower again, we went outside before bed and craned our necks up to the dark dome. There! One of us pointed. A streak lit up the sky. Then another. Every couple of minutes one of us would see another meteor, usually with enough time to point it out to the rest.
Sometimes the most magical moments in nature are the ones you don’t see coming. Living in South Carolina, I always thought the northern lights were something we’d have to travel to see. Even when we heard that sightings of them could reach far into the South, we weren’t hopeful we’d see any. We like to go to bed early, not stay up late into the early hours of the morning that are most likely for spotting them.
Besides, how could we see them here? We live in the South. They are called northern lights. In any case, it wasn’t on our minds on October 10, 2024. None of us know why we were up at 10:30. We’d lingered together in our living room, reveling in the quiet joy of cozying up together, not wanting to move away from the warm couches, when our neighborhood group chat pinged. Someone had seen the northern lights!
We all rushed off the couch, scrambling to get out the door and onto the deck. We skidded to a stop in amazement. The aurora painted across the western sky were watercolor strokes, faint but clearly perceivable, of violet, coupled with faint splashes of green. The painting would move, dancing slowly to form different shapes, flaring at times to add more color, revealing patterns of light our awe-struck eyes couldn’t turn away from. That night was one we’ll never forget, with surprise beauty whispering when we least expected it.
Through these experiences with the night sky and many more, we’ve come to understand all of creation whispers His beauty, no matter where we are or how dark the night is. All we have to do is look up, beyond ourselves, and have eyes open to witness it.