I can see clearly now

My daughter and I share a lot of interests. I won't list them all, because in the eyes of some 'normal' folks we might seem a bit odd. As a matter of fact, that is one of the things we share: we don't mind being considered odd, we boldly go where no split infinitive has gone before.

One of the interests we share is stargazing. We built our own telescope several years ago, and it is a fine one. It looks just like the one in the picture here, but ours is brown. It is just under five feet tall when aimed up. And it works like a champ. In fact one night we went out into the backyard to see Saturn. It was supposed to be close to the moon, which makes it harder to see but very easy to find. As we set up the 'scope, a layer of clouds rolled over and we couldn't even see the moon. But we waited for an opening, and we finally spotted our target.

But when the clouds rolled back in, we assumed our gazing was over for the night. But to our amazement, the telescope was powerful enough, and the planet bright enough that we could see it right through the cloud layer. Naked eye - nothing. Scope - right there. As the clouds got thicker, the image grew less sharp, but it was like X-ray vision or something.

I have flown above the clouds and been reminded that it is always sunny up there, but this was a new experience - we were still right here at ground level and we could pull the image of the planet right through the clouds. It is a simple fact of science: the telescope has much greater power to gather light. The clouds may have been able to limit the view from our human eyes, but they could not stop the image from getting to our telescope. 0h that I would remember that when I pray. The world may have the ability to block my faith, but God has the ability to pierce the darkness and reveal Himself to me in the darkest of times.