aurora
O Holy Night — Merry Christmas
The last several years, I’ve been been blessed to sing in a Christmas Eve service/event. Some of the early years were stressful as I had to learn new songs, new harmony parts and so on, but it was also quite a bit of fun. In years past, we’ve had a proper band — a professional pianist, drummer, guitarist, and bass player. That is also fun but stressful, since I am not used to running a rehearsal with a full band and a time crunch. I’d love it if rehearsals could just go as long as necessary, but there is usually a deadline.-+
Let me share with you a special song that I always sing. It is my version of O Holy Night, with lyrics rewritten to reflect on my time living in the Northwest Territories. I have nothing against the original version per se, but this was my experience with a holy night, serene, powerful and life-changing.
O Holy Night
(Lyrics by Teresa Griffith)
O holy night. The stars are brightly shining.
It is the night of my spirit’s rebirth.
Out in the woods, the river running by me,
The northern lights stole my breath, sang my worth.
A thrill of hope, my weary soul rejoices
For overhead, a mystery unfolds.
A-mong the trees, I hear the angel voices.
O night divine, O night of northern lights.
O night divine, O night, O night divine.
O holy night, O how the lights are dancing.
In awe I stand, barely able to breathe.
Awesome to see, somehow they speak of glory,
and love and infinite possibilities.
How can it be? Phenomenal pure beauty,
For in my heart, a mystery unfolds.
A-mong the trees, I hear the angel voices.
O night divine, O night of northern lights.
O night divine, O night, O night divine.
Blessings
Last week, I went cross-country skiing, briefly – there was no trail made, so I didn’t got far before filling my boots with snow and turning around and backtracking! It was a beautiful day, only about -5 C, so I was just happy to be out and about. On the way back, I got a special treat – I saw 2 moose cross the path in front of me! It was quite a sight – they were coming from the direction of town, heading into the bush, and of course the trails are on the edge of town. They running across the trail, so obviously they must have been scared by something, probably a car or truck. I don’t think it was little old me on the cross country skis, ploughing along…! It was quite a sight to see, 2 beautiful, big moose bounding across the trail and into the bush. One went in to a thicker area, so I couldn’t see it, but the other one just went off into the poplars, so I could see it quite well for a while. It seemed pretty unconcerned with me. So I am feeling very blessed to get to see some moose up close! I have seen them along the road, rarely, and even as I whiz by I am always excited to see them, but on foot, at much slower speeds, it was a real treat. I don’t know if they were male of female, because the males don’t have antlers at this time of year (someone correct me if I’m wrong, I’m not a biologist).
And then the other day, at work, I saw 5 or 6 deer, not far from the airport! They were in a cutline that we have that allows us to see Footner Lake and Watt Mountain. Luckily, I had brought my camera to work that day, so I managed to get a few pictures! So that was another treat! And I saw some more deer (possibly the same ones) that night going home from work, along the edge of the road! Luckily, they bounded over the snowbanks along the edge and did not test the structural integrity of my car! 🙂 Deer are so smart! Apparently, the wolves are on the move as well – my coworker told me, and I also had a pilot comment that he saw a deer that had been taken down by wolves. The snow has a nice crust on top, so they can get around better (and I imagine it’s harder for the hoofed animals).
To top off my week, I’ve been blessed to see 2 wonderful displays of aurora! Dancing, ribbony, floating, cloud-like, spikey, mostly green with wisps or red! Darren said there was an awesome display in Edmonton that same evening, with white and purple even! So I hope that lots of you got to see them!
So I’m just feeling very grateful and appreciative of the nature that I’ve encountered in the last week! It makes me glad I live where I do, where the northern lights are a frequent occurrence and the skies are nice and dark. I took some nice pictures of the lunar eclipse a few weeks ago and some constellation pictures, too, right from my back yard. 🙂 And I’m using these gifts to remember God’s greatness and to put in perspective some people-related things that have happened this week.
Hopefully you’re all having a great week, and enjoying the spring-like weather! I was out on my back deck today, soaking up the rays! 🙂
Ideas about God – Omnipotence
I received the most beautiful gift just now! I was coming home from work, walking out to my car, and looked up. What an amazing display of aurora! It was faint across most of the sky, with the stars in the background, but then as I turned around, I saw a wonderful bright band towards the west–a ribbon of dancing, shimmering energy! Wow! I know, I shouldn’t be this excited; I’ve seen displays like this before, but it takes my breath away every time! I was mesmerized, and wanted it to never end.
Seeing the awesomeness of the northern lights reminds me of God–how can it not? It is so amazing, awe-inspiring… I am at a loss for words! I just start trying to think up more synonyms for “awesome.” I guess that’s what God’s power is like–awesome beyond words! He created the universe, and although it is unimaginably vast, he’s found in every part of it… so huge, yet found in the smallest snowflake or tiny amoeba. There is order throughout all of nature (although it might look chaotic on the surface), and that’s a clue about his nature and power, too, I think. Very orderly, yet with lots of room for creativity and unstructured beauty. It’s interesting how so many things are symmetrical, like basically all flowers and animals, but also things like matter and anti-matter (and many other particles), and the galaxy, although not perfectly so. The solar system isn’t really symmetrical, since all the bigger planets are farther away… but when you learn some planetary dynamics, and how solar systems are formed, then it makes sense too. So, much of his creation is nice and orderly.
And then there’s us humans. We aren’t very orderly (although at least we are symmetrical). 🙂 We are mean when we should be kind, thoughtless when we should be attentive, blunt when we should use tact… We don’t seem to be very good examples of God’s nature at all, do we!! Well, there’s a reason for that! For all God’s power, there is just one thing he cannot do: He cannot interfere with the free will he’s given us. That’s what makes us different from most of his other creations (the jury’s still out on Chimpanzees and cats). He can break any other law he wants, the laws he created, like the laws of physics, or chemistry (although he doesn’t do that terribly often), but he cannot break the law of free will. We can choose to do whatever we want–to be whatever we want. If we’ve chosen to be miserable, God cannot make us happy. To force happiness on us would take away our free will, and that’s simply impossible, even for a second. If we want to be happy deep down inside but don’t know how, that’s different! That he can help us with, because he sees our hearts, our deepest desires, our unspoken needs. But that’s getting into his omniscience, and that’s a topic for another day! So, we should take this gift of free will seriously and be careful about what we choose!
Hope you’re enjoying my “ideas about God” series!
P.S. I usually try to post only pictures that I have taken, but I don’t have any of the northern lights. Not yet… The pic below is from NOAA POES satellite (http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/pmap/) showing areas of intense electrical activity in the atmosphere! Red is most intense, and this view from space, generated by many satellite passes, is superimposed on a map of Earth. It’s pretty easy to see Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes, and of course, I’m not that far from Great Slave. Overall activity today is 8 out of 10!
Adventures with Teresa 