I sat outside in a camping chair, alone, staring up at a dark gray sky dotted with stars. The temperature had dropped to 45 degrees so far. I wore my choir letter jacket. It was the first jacket I saw in the closet, and I figured I would be the only crazy fool outside staring up at the sky at 1:00 in the morning. A few planes and cars passed in the distance to break the silence. I waited.

When you stare up at the night sky long enough, you start seeing things, but you’re not always sure whether you really see them. They could be tiny meteors, literally the size of specks of dust, or they could be your eyes playing tricks on you. Or maybe your brain playing tricks on you. After all, you are sitting outside staring up at the sky.

It makes you think – about how big the universe really is, so big that your mind can’t possible comprehend its vastness, as if terms like “millions of light-years” were tangible units of measure. About how the constellations would look totally different if you viewed them from another galaxy. About how big must be the God who created it all. About how unimaginably small we are in comparison, and how much smaller our individual problems, hopes, fears, and goals are. About how great must be the God who created a universe that big but also knows and cares about the tiny details of each life on this little planet.

Finally, I saw one, a gorgeous streak of light that passed overhead in the blink of an eye, so fast that I couldn’t focus on it directly before it vanished. It was a wink from God, the only one around who was still awake. I smiled.

For you science fans out there, the earth is currently passing through a huge cloud of space dust left behind by Comet Tempel-Tuttle. As some of these tiny specks of space dust entered our atmosphere, they heat up until glowing and then disintegrate as part of the annual Leonid Meteor Shower.

The first time Jenny and I ever really hung out was on a Leonid watching party I organized back in November 2001. She rode out with me and a couple other guys. And here we are.