A Billion Years In The Making...

 I came home tonight dead tired from my second job. Our little dog wanted out, so I let her wander the front yard as I prepared to write this post. Of course, the dog began barking--in her aging years she's seeing things that aren't there and naturally she barked at what she believes is there. I left my computer I went outside to investigate (because every so often, there is something there to bark at, a neighbor, a deer, our other cat...). Nope, she was barking at our minivan.

I decided to stay outside just in case she began barking again, which she did. And since I was alone under a cloudless sky, I decided to offer up a little prayer, which I'm wont to do every now and then. Not ten seconds into my semi-casual conversation with Deity, I saw a shooting star fall in the western sky. The above picture was taken in the vicinity of where it fell. It would have been impossible for me to actually get a picture of it. The above picture required I steady the camera on our back deck to compensate for the long exposure. Still, I like the photo.

As I watched the star fall, a thought hit me, and I was amazed at all the circumstances that came together for me to be standing next to my parked car looking in the general direction of west and seeing that incredible sight. Just me seeing it meant I needed to be outside. I wanted to be inside relaxing, preparing a blog post (since I didn't really know what to write about tonight...). And I had to be facing west. Had I been looking up at the eastern sky, I would have missed it.

Of course, all these are things I did tonight to be able to watch one of nature's fireworks. The rest of the process probably took billions of years to orchestrate. That speck of matter, or however big it was--science was not my strong suit in school--traveled from somewhere to burn up in earth's atmosphere. It could have been man-made, some chunk of space junk that fell to earth. If that's the case, it was made from materials found on our planet, and depending on which theory you believe, that piece of material has existed for billions of years. Its placement in space and its return home took billions of years to take place.

Like I said, I was tired. And I know that the falling star would have happened had I been watching or not. I don't really consider it an answer to a prayer, or a way of God saying, "Hi." I just chuckled, thought of all the things that took place for it to happen and me to see it, and I enjoyed the moment. Then again, maybe it was God winking at me. I can buy that, too.