Earth flew through a cloud of comet dust this weekend, which is pretty cool. 😎

I lost some sleep over it, waking at 3:00a on Sunday to drive to a high point (but the valley beside the high point is filled with a city and its lights, so stargazing was poor), and waking again this morning at 2:30a to trek into the pasture behind the farmhouse (much better viewing). I spent much of my 10-hour work day on Monday convincing myself I didn’t regret trading sleep for a glimpse of the Perseid meteor shower, recalling the dozens of shooting stars and even a meteor flashbulb.
(Below: My first attempt at astrophotography; glad my eyes are better at capturing than my camera!)

My alarm woke me up for night #1. I awoke a bit differently for night #2. See, the plan was to wake up for my alarm at 3:30a, but I woke up at 2:30a with heart pounding after a vivid dream – and I think you need to know about it.

In that dream, I was walking the streets with a couple of my sisters, trying to convince them to wake up with me early the next morning to watch the Perseid meteor shower. It was a sunny, blue-skied day; a very bright sky, with few, puffy white clouds floating about. As I was in my spiel about the star shower, we looked up to see hundreds of shooting stars piercing through the sky, ripping a black hole in the blue tapestry of midday, sending dazzling rays of light straight toward us. It was frightening and exciting, awful and awesome all at once. I grabbed my sister’s hand and called for the other sister, yelling, “Look! LOOK! Look now! The sky! The stars!! LOOK!”

My sister and I turned to each other, awestruck and smiling. She said, “Could it be… I think it’s…”, to which I replied, “Yes! Jesus is coming!”

And that’s why I think you need to know about my dream.

“All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved
and the sky rolled up like a scroll;
all the starry host will fall…”

Isaiah 34:4, NIV

“‘…the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.
“And He will send His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”

Matthew 24:29-31, NIV

This earth won’t last forever… And that’s good news. (Can anyone argue that our current state of affairs is the way we want to live? Can anyone claim that the world is getting better?)
That’s good news because we know the end of the story.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them….He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Revelation 21:1,3-4, NIV

This earth won’t last forever.
The sky ripping open is a kinda scary proposition for we dust specks inhabiting the 3rd rock from the sun, but we can look forward to what’s on the other side of that tear in the heavens. 🙂