One Starry Night (Amie Stone King)
Lying on the warm hood of the family car and staring into the sky, we waited. When I was a kid, meteor showers were a favorite family outing. Far from city lights, surrounded by warm breezes and eerie sounds of night creatures, time slowed as we watched the light show in the sky.
One evening the shower was so prolific that we lost count in the hundreds. It lasted for hours.
As a parent, my most memorable star-gazing trip came last year. Now living in a much larger place, escaping the city-glow took us miles from town. We settled in for the star-watch evening on a couch, headed for a donation center, in the bed of our truck.
It requires great patience to sit and stare at the dark sky and wait for what is most times a fleeting arc or a single flash. Children are not always patient. Thankfully there are other things to see in the night sky. Following numerous sightings of airplanes and even a satellite the meteor shower began. The wind rattled the dried corn stalks reminding me of the time a tractor came to life near the truck causing great excitement, but this night we were alone with nature.
Enveloped in our sacred family ritual the teenager studied the constellations and the six-year old contemplated God, and we all pondered, “What else is out there?” The stillness of spirit the evening brought was extraordinary.
What are your sacred family rituals? How do you come together to experience God through nature?
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Re: Amie's cover photo, "Working as a model sometimes offers great locations for star gazing. See the shooting star in the lower right."
Amie King is a mom and writer, musician, model living in Pflugerville, TX. She's also part of the AllCreation.org mgmt team. Please visit her website and check out more of her work on AllCreation.
