Flames

Sleepless. It must be due to this super moon. It seems like we have already had a super moon this year. And maybe another one is coming?  It is an unusual year. In many ways. 

It is clear tonight and the shadows on the ground are so intense - due, of course, to the brightness of the moonlight. 

I love full moon nights. I loved it when we would sit in the swing in the coolness of the night and just watch the moon as it slowly moved across the sky. 

It was really beautiful when I was ever up for moon-set - watching it disappear on the other side of the lake in the west, as the sun rose in the east.. God surely gives us beauty all around, even in the quiet of the nighttime. 

Full moon nights will always make me think about Roger - mostly about the next morning when he would come in from work and tell me all about his calls for the evening and night time.  "The crazies were out tonight" - he had the craziest, most entertaining stories!  I miss those stories. He was a great story teller! 

All evening and even into the night I could not help but think of the firefighters at KSC.  According to my little color coded shift calendar, if I am reading it correctly, Roger would have been on duty tonight. He would have been coming in around breakfast time to tell me about the crazies and the calls they answered. He would not have slept all night, because he would have wanted to be alert when the crazies called for help.  Rick told me that the most absurd things always seemed to happen on his shift.  Maybe it was because he was waiting up for them, I don't know. Maybe it was because his sense of humor made the call seem crazier. Either way, we enjoyed hearing about his night. 

I find myself wondering what is happening at KSC tonight. Is it calm or are they having really absurd calls? Are the gators in the lagoons beside the highway sleeping nicely or are they out of sorts tonight?  Will a car pass through, going way too fast and the driver end up being someone the police are searching for?  Is everything ok on the pad?  We has a storm today - did they? Are the alarms all  going off like crazy?   All of those thoughts bring back memories. 

I am also thinking about and praying for the different firefighters that Roger worked with for so many years. Many of them are retired. A good number of them are fighting their own health battles of different sorts.  The younger ones are reporting to work each day and training to be the best they can be, preparing for what the future holds.  Some are breezing through life, others are facing challenges, but all of them have a kind of strength that only can be found in a firefighter. 

Unlike most professions, firefighters spend ⅓ of their working lives together.  Every third shift. 24 hours. They have each others backs. I can't help but pray for these guys (and gals) because they were so much a part of his life. 

I love the way that the speaker at the Fire Chief's Prayer Breakfast put it when talking about sacrifice.  It was something to the effect of firefighters being willing to lay down their life, being willing to quench the fire or even go through the fire to save a soul - and compared that to Jesus, who did lay down his life that we might have eternal life, and already went through the fire, quenching the fires of hell, for all - yet only those who believe will be spared those flames. 

I'm still trying to process a lot of the activities of the past weekend before I write about it. But I will, in time. 

Right now, I am still enjoying the quiet of the nighttime and the brightness of this super moon.  We don't get them often so it seems fitting to enjoy it.  And quiet time is a good time to look up and to recognize that there truly is someone bigger than any of us who keeps this whole world spinning. And more than that, He is on duty all the time, and he looks down, not only into our homes, but into our hearts and souls and knows everything about us. Pretty comforting, if you don't have anything to hide.  

I lead a pretty boring life, by the world's standards, but I am pretty excited about each new day and what God has for me to learn.  And yes, each day is still exciting and new. It is different, of course, because my laughing man isn't here. 

Roger's Lesson:   Keep looking up. When you are down, look up. There is someone bigger than you or me who has it all under control, and indeed, His way is perfect. 

I know. And I believe that. Even if I am not thrilled with the timing. 

I wonder if I will get up early enough for the moon-set? 
But the new day - yes, it will hold something special!