High Flight

Some of the most beautiful events in nature I have seen, have been through the window of a Lear jet on the way to Baffin Island. The first was a sunrise. The most beautiful I have ever seen. We were so close to the sun that I could swear I could reach out and touch it... like touching the face of God!

Tonight I saw the Northern Lights... brighter and more colourful than I have ever seen them before.They were a spectacular display of beauty.... of His amazing creation. Beautiful streaks of green and purple dancing through the sky. I was afraid to blink... I did not want to miss this display of grandeur. As I watched in amazement, all my heart could do was praise Him. All I could think of was that MY God did that!

There are several Inuit Legends surrounding the Northern Lights. My favourite is that the lights are the souls of children who have passed away... dancing in the heavens. This week we lost 2 little kiddies at work. It is always so hard. We all feel this incredible sadness, yet we know that it pales in comparison to the grief the parents feel. It breaks my heart knowing that these mothers will go home to an empty crib. That they will never send their baby off to school... that fathers will never take their son to a ball game... that siblings will never know the joys of sibling friendship. Knowing that these precious children are dancing in the heavens makes my heart smile.

There is a poem that comes to mind... It reminds me of the amazing sights I saw. It reminds me of children dancing in the heavens, touching the face of God.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence.

Hov'ring there

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,

I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew -

And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod

The high untresspassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

-Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee