The Green Flash

One of my brothers who does a lot of sailing has been on lakes and oceans both day and night. He tells us that twice he has had the fortune of seeing what is described as "the green flash". This is a rare phenomenon where, just after sunset or just prior to sunrise, the suns rays are refracted in such a way that for a period of usually no more than a second the horizon over an ocean or a large body of water like Lake Michigan will flash green.

Going to watch sunsets on Lake Michigan is something we do living here so close. I have seen hundreds if not a thousand sunsets over that Lake but have never seen the green flash and in fact did not even know about it until about 10 years ago when my brother related his story. Indeed my brother's experiences were on an ocean. But now whenever we are at the Lake at sunset we are a little more aware to watch for it.

Today I happened to phone a friend who has a nice house on the shore of Lake Michigan. During our conversation I mentioned that driving home from work lately there have been a lot of great sunsets. Mike replies that he is not really into sunsets but in the last month did see the green flash twice, informing me in the way Mike always does that the cold air we have been having lately has made it a lot more conducive for the flash to appear. Mike is older than me, has lived most of his life right at the shore of that great body of water and has only seen the flash twice before.

Looking for the green flash is the type of thing you tell your kids and grand kids about and if lucky you get to share the waiting for it as well. It is a wonder but real and although seeing it doesn't make you in any way a better person it will make you special in the sense that you have seen something only a relatively a few other humans have.

There is something else that is important for us to share as well, especially with our kids and grand kids. I have seen with my eyes, heard with my ears and experienced in my life the wonders and richness and grace of my Lord and Savior. My witness to the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word and through His works, in guidance and in miracles, in good times and in bad is something that is precious and all to rare in our world. I want to tell them to seek it, to wait for it and to expect it in their own lives.

It says in Psalm 78:

I will open my mouth in a parable

I will utter riddles of old which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us

We will not conceal them from our children but tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wondrous works He has done

For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel which He commanded our fathers that they should teach them to their children

That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children

That they should put their confidence in God and not forget the works of God but keep His commandments