The Northern Lights Story

by: Doug

June 8, 2008

If your read my newsletter I alluded to this.  If you didn’t read the newsletter…its available on my site in ‘resources’.  So here it is:

About 4 or 5 years ago the Calvary Church youth group had the annual fall retreat at Camp Spofford in New Hampshire.  I was a volunteer leader and very involved in all aspects of the youth group (what got me going in the direction I now headed) helping Pastor Rick.  That summer was a very dry one and New Hampshire had a burn ban in place.  No big deal, right?  Not for us.  We have been going to Spofford for as long as I can remember (I used to go when I was in middle school) and one of the most anticipated events was the Saturday night bonfire.  With just a few days to go the burn ban was still in place and we had to come up with plan B if we were to save this 15+ year tradition.  Certainly we could work something out.  The location for the fire was on a beach…next to a creek…just feet from a lake…no trees anywhere near us…and a 30’ wide street between the beach and anything that could burn.  Well, we appealed to all levels of authority.  Even the local fire marshal.  No one could help.  We had the church pray for rain or for sympathy from the authorities.  Nada.  The fire simply would not happen.  Time for plan B.

The purpose of the bonfire was to allow the students an opportunity to share what God was doing in their life.  This really doesn’t work well in complete darkness.  So we needed some light source.  Fire was out.  So Rick had the idea of using lanterns in a small circle to give the person speaking some light to be seen and see (some) people.  Saturday night came and it was time to set up the ‘bonfire’.  Rick and I went outside while Jason was finishing the message for the night.  As we walked out to the beach Rick looked across the water and asked, “Is there something going on over there?”  What looked like carnival lights off in the distance was beginning to rise from the horizon.  After a closer look we realized it wasn’t a carnival.  Rather it was the northern lights.  We stopped to admire the view for a moment…then began to set up our ‘light show’.  It was a moment or two before we looked at each other and finally got it.  By now the lights were covering most of the horizon and rising higher.  The students began to file out to the beach and rather than sit around a bonfire…something we’ve seen many times…they were greeted with one of the most amazing light shows you can see anywhere on the planet.  For the entire time we sat on the beach, well over an hour, the northern lights shone brightly in the sky over the lake.  Not a cloud in the sky, and the moon no where to be seen.  For most of us it was the first and likely only time we’ll ever see that.

Had Rick and I gotten our way we would have had a bonfire.  A nice big one with lots of light and would have lasted hours.  Big enough to dull, or perhaps even hide this natural light show.  We had our plan:  a bonfire.  We had a plan B:  lanterns.  God had a different plan:  the northern lights.  Even when we caught sight of what God had for us, we still persisted with our plan B.  It took us a moment to get out of the mindset of doing it OUR way and instead doing it God’s way.  We prayed for our plans.  God answered with something far better than we could have ever done.  A cloudless sky, no other lights around, and the most spectacular light show on Earth.  Next time your plans are not working out, keep an eye out for the norther lights.  God might be working on something far better.