By Nena Harding
A real blast from the past had me singing along with “Reach for the Stars” on Radio Suffolk this morning and it reminded me of an awesome adventure a few years ago. I have always yearned to see the Northern Lights but never got round to booking a cruise in winter to go in hope – and cold! When I saw a magazine article about Aurora Borealis night flights from various airports, I checked whether Stansted was one – yes indeed – so I booked a night trip for a February 3 hour night flight. I arrived in good time for the obligatory pre-flight lectures, one on what we might see of the Aurora that night, and another on constellations and things which bored me so much I didn’t really listen, as I just wanted to get going!
When we were aboard, we discovered that when we got level with Norway (that far north!!) we would experience total darkness inside and out (with aviation authority permission) so we would fly 3 large loops to hopefully glimpse the Northern Lights. We flew up along the UK East coast seeing minute city lights beneath us on a cloudless night and once we were north of Scotland, I was full of anticipation, as the crew put black tape over the inside signage and the pilot switched off all outside lights. In the inky black I thought it would be like flying on a night flight to US where you see nothing much. But then as I looked out, I could see the stars – thousands upon thousands, so bright and so close – I could stars beneath us, above us, just everywhere I looked and it seemed they were huge.
The astronomer started pointing out constellations which I had often seen from a distance but now it seemed they were within touching distance, and Jupiter – so big it looked like a big ball. It was so incredible to be amongst the myriad of stars he had “flung into space” and the feeling of being up there in God’s heavens was overwhelmingly emotional, I wanted those awesome moments to last forever. The creator God’s work indeed on a scale I found difficult to grasp. Our awesome God, worthy of our praise, yet interested in little specks in His universe like me. Then the lights were suddenly back on, and everything vanished, except the indelible pictures in my mind. Oh, and we did see the Northern lights, so insignificant compared with the hugeness of being in the midst of the stars!! Maybe we need to “think big”, when we are hoping and praying to our great big God in the challenges of daily life?
(Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash)
