There are some things in this universe that happen as regularly as clockwork. The sun rises, the sun sets. The moon orbits around the Earth once every 27.322 days – which means that, occasionally, there will be two full moons in a calendar month – a so-called “Blue Moon”. There are many other such things which take place in space – things which even ancient star-gazers knew and could rely upon [which, BTW, is such an amazing fact that I find myself humbled by the knowledge and awareness of people who observed the night skies without the aid of telescopes or the understanding of modern science].
So, last Tuesday night, my wife and I prepared for our annual “Cosmic Disappointment”. What in the world am I talking about? Well, modern astronomical science has discovered that each year in October, the Earth will pass through the remnants of the tail of Halley’s Comet, resulting in a “meteor shower”. The bits of dust and comet debris that make up the tail of Halley’s Comet burn up upon entering the Earth’s upper atmosphere, leaving brief but visible trails in the night sky. A meteor shower takes place when several are visible to the naked eye every hour. This year, scientists expected that the annual “Orionid Meteor Shower” [called this because the meteors appear to originate out of the Constellation Orion] might have as many as 20 visible meteors per hour.
Each year, we note the arrival of “The Orionids”, and each year we watch with great expectation to see a light show in the night sky. And, each year, we meet with disappointment because we never see anything that could by any stretch of the imagination be called a “meteor shower”. If we see two or three meteors in an hour, we have seen a lot, and that sure doesn’t seem like a “shower” in my book. Last Tuesday was no exception. Nearly an hour of earnest watching and waiting revealed not a single meteor. Once again, it wasn’t a “shower” this year. In fact, this year, it wasn’t even a “drip”. Disappointing to say the least.
Now, to be fair to the scientists who seem to get it wrong with their predictions every year, it is possible that “light pollution” is the reason we see so few meteors during our night watches. In fact, due to some car burglaries in our subdivision, our neighbors leave on so many outside lights that it probably wouldn’t be any trouble for Cliff Istre to land his airplane on our street in the middle of the night. Dark skies are best for viewing meteor showers. Still, since we can see the Constellation Orion, we should be able to see at least some of the Orionid meteors, right?
You’d think that by now, after so many wasted hours, our expectations would be tempered. You’d think that by now we’d be wise enough to say, “No more disappointment; we aren’t even going to try anymore.” But, I think you’d be wrong. I’m guessing that we’ll be out there again next October for the Orionids. And I’m guessing that we’ll be out there again on December 13-14 for the Geminids. And I’m guessing that we’ll keep on trying to figure out when and where to look for other cosmic phenomena in the night skies.
Crazy, right? What possesses a person to try again? To keep on trying when there have been so many failures?
The answer, of course, in this and in virtually every other field of endeavor, is HOPE. I hope that things will be different next time; I hope that something will change. I hope that a real “shower” of meteors will appear in a spectacular display of fire in the sky – something that will leave us laughing and crying and praising God – something that we will never forget. But, I imagine that only disappointments lie ahead. Maybe I need to simply follow the advice of The Man In Black in “The Princess Bride” and “Get used to disappointment.”
What has left you disappointed in life? What are you hoping will change? What are you hoping will be different?
While there may be many things in life that we “hope” will change, and that bring disappointment when they don’t change, listen to what The Holy Spirit says about the thing that matters the most: “Our faith guarantees us permanent access to this marvelous grace that has given us a perfect relationship with God. What incredible joy bursts forth within us as we keep on celebrating our hope of experiencing God’s glory…a hope that will never disappoint us.” [Romans 5:2;5a].
I hope that this is how you feel about your walk with God. Aren’t you glad that God Himself guarantees that the one thing we “hope” for the most can never lead to disappointment?
Of course, many of you probably know that I left out some of the other things these verses speak of – things like trials and suffering and endurance and character – things that we probably wish didn’t go along with living a joyful, grace-filled life. But these are the very things that, deep down, we know are necessary to turn “hope” from wishful thinking into confident expectation. May The Lord grant you the peace and joy that comes from the confident expectation of victory in Christ!
~Shepherd Ambrose Ramsey
