Moonlight Scerenade...or renegade :-)

Tonight's the night. You've spent the past couple of hours reading the third what has quickly become one of your favorite series- action, fantasy, horror-gotta love The Gatekeepers...oh yeah, all the while sipping a thermos mug fulla coffee. Coffee at 10:00 at night. Some would consider this rediculous, but reaping the benefits of caffeine is your intention of the night. Finally, at last, everybody is in bed asleep and the clock reads 11:30.

Preparation time. Sweeping silently as you can through your room in the dark, you gather up the four key items you need for this adventure. Blanket. Flashlight. Binoculars. Flipflops. Check yes. And just as an extra precaution, you rearrange some pillows, blankets and a stuffed dalmation to keep the bed seemingly occupied. Then you're off- tiptoeing down the stairs, trying your best to avoid the creaky spots in the floor...all's going well, then boom. You have to stop and catch your breath... isn't it just so annoying when you take one giant step thinking you're at the bottom of the staircase and it turns out there were two more steps below you and you take a giant drop? Oi. But you didn't fall or make too big of a racket, so you're all good. Now you're on the main floor of your tri-level house, sneaking through the living room and into the kitchen, where the sliding glass door to the back yard is located. So far undetected, you take a deep breath and unlock the door, sliding it slowly open...realizing that it squeaks a lot more than you previously thought. Thankfully everybody but you sleeps with their door shut and is unlikely to have heard a thing. Whew! Once you're on the back porch, you let out a sigh of relief, thinking that the hardest part is over. Unfortunately you're wrong. After getting the door to the screened-in area of the porch open, you're out! In your excitement you tear accross to the other end of the yard, momentarily forgetting about the motion-sensing light. Well that moment of memory lapse doesn't last long- the light flashes on. NOOOO!! Not wanting to be taken as a burgaler by the neighbors, you run up the hill and into the garden area, where you can hide under the pear tree until the light goes out. Of course, it's just your luck- the light wakes up DJ, your family's (rather obnoxious) outdoor dog, who starts whinning because there's somebody out there to play with but he isn't being let out of his crate as he feels he should. Ugh.

You're not sure how long, but probably near 10 minutes later, the light at last goes out and DJ is begining to calm down. Finally. Treading lightly as you can back down the hill, the crunching of leaves and bark chips beneath your feet seems to be magnified, but at last you get back to the grassy part of the yard, and make your way to the side of the house where the roof is lowest. There, you climb onto the fence, and from there to the roof. Victory, at last!

And ya know what? It was actually worth the trouble. The temperature was perfect... comfortably warm with an occasional cool breze whirling around your shoulders. And the stars...wow. Lying down on your back, looking up at the sky. It feels sooo nice. Kicking back and relaxing under a sky full of stars and an ambience of far away cars and the sound of crickets, you pull up your binoculars and get them in focus. One word: WOW. It's amazing how many more stars you can see with those things! It's spectacular. Exactly how you'd imagined it would be, out on your roof at midnight. All your problems seem to dissapear, as you look up at the sky. Lying there staring up at the sky, you really see things in a good perspective. It's like a visual aid, and you suddenly realize just how big God is and how little you are. Sometimes we feel like we can see it all, like we're absolutely amazing; really, we're like ants on a table top- wandering around this vast landscape figuring things out as we go along, but hardly knowing anything at all. And then there's God- up there above it all, watching us run around thinking we know so much, when really only He knows the big picture. When there are so many galaxies and stars in the sky, when the sky seems so huge and amazing, just how much more incredible must the One be who MADE all that?? Seriously!

I think I need to go out at night more often. I need these reminders, especially when life gets complicated. When I remember that everything happens for a reason, that God has it all planned out start to finish and that all things work together for good to those who love Him, life seems a lot less scary. I know I'll make it through, but I always can use the reminder that I'm not making it through on my own.