Northern Lights

A memory is a treasure that survives.

Amish Proverb

Winter felt different. Winter evenings, especially, felt different from any other time of year. And Friday evenings were the best of all. Those are Carolyn Yoder’s memories of winter on her family’s farm in Ontario, Canada.

Carolyn and her brother Atlee liked to hurry home from school and enjoy the snack that their mother, Nancy, would have waiting for them. “Most of the time it was homemade bread, spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar,” Carolyn said, “but on Fridays she would bake cookies for us. Still warm from the oven, they’d be waiting for us as we ran through the door.”

After the two children had eaten their snacks, they would hurry to finish their chores. The wood box had to be filled with enough wood to last until the next evening, and then Carolyn would help her mother prepare supper.

On most winter evenings, once the family had eaten and the dishes were washed and put away, Carolyn’s mother would send the two children down to the basement with a flashlight and a bowl to get apples from the storage bin. They would all sit around the kitchen while their mother peeled apples and their father read stories aloud. Then Carolyn and her mother would sew while Atlee and their father played checkers or worked on a puzzle. “When the grandfather clock in the hallway clanged eight o’clock,” Carolyn said, “Dad would pack up the checkers game. Then we’d come together in the living room to kneel for prayer. Dad would read the evening prayer from his little black prayer book.”

Afterward, Carolyn and her brother Johnny would race each other upstairs. Shivering in their unheated bedrooms, they changed into nightclothes and brushed their teeth by flashlight. In the meantime, their mother tucked hot baked potatoes—wrapped in dishtowels—in their beds to warm them up. Carolyn would snuggle deep under the covers, lulled to sleep by the murmur of her parents’ voices as they talked downstairs.

One year, the Yoder family took the train to visit relatives who lived in Alberta. “The first night we were there, we had a big dinner and played some board games. My mother had just eyed the clock and gently hinted that she thought a warm bed and a good night’s sleep was starting to sound pretty good. Suddenly, my uncle Eli jumped up and said, ‘Let’s go out on the lake and watch the northern lights.’ ”

Adventure got the best of them. “My brother Johnny and my dad practically jumped into their boots before Eli finished making that offer.” Minutes later, the family started on their way down the path to the frozen lake. “In the dark, as the men started out on the snow-covered ice, I began to feel more than a little anxious, wondering if the ice would hold up. I nearly turned back. I wanted to! But Atlee and my cousins laughed at me.”

Carolyn’s uncle explained to her that the ice was solid, at least four feet thick. “Eli led the two families, single file, a good ways out on the lake. There we stood and watched the northern lights.” Carolyn paused, and the look on her face changed as the wisp of a memory played in her mind. “I watched the brilliant green lights dance across the sky. Behind us, to the south in the pitch black sky above the shoreline, it appeared there were at least a zillion twinkling stars. It was the single most spectacular experience of my entire life. I felt as though my whole life was spent in preparation of this moment. The beauty of God’s handiwork brought tears to my eyes. I’ll never, ever forget it.”

Road Map: Getting There from Here

What special childhood memory do you have of observing something remarkable in the natural world? What made that memory stick? Probably a sense of awe. It’s easy to lose that awe as we get older and busier. We miss the miracles that go on around us! A spectacular sunset, a star-studded sky, the short-lived blossoms of a fruit tree in spring. Children have a way of reminding us to pay closer attention to the world and its daily miracles.

Make a habit of noticing nature’s miracles. Point out to your children these hints of heaven’s grandeur that surround them. “Do you see? You live in God’s kingdom—there are signs all around you. He is all around you. And do you realize who you are? You are God’s child!”

On April 20 [2010], the people who weren’t in bed by ten o’clock got to see the flying meteor. It was such an awesome sight, and the rumble that followed sounded like a huge freight train! God moves in mysterious ways His wonders to perform.

—Scribe from Beetown, Wisconsin

It seems after the January thaw, we are having snow flurries—two and a half inches on Friday, [February] 5th. The fields look brighter with snow on the ground than when it’s bare. The snow brings the feathered friends to the patio door. They seem to enjoy their smorgasbord. The tame rabbit will come and stand on his hind legs to look in the door, as if to say “Where is my corn?” As soon as we pitch some out there, he’s there to enjoy it. There is a snow bird that comes every winter to share the corn with the other winter birds. This snow bird has one white feather in its tail; therefore, we know it’s the same one. This is the third winter it has shown up.

—Scribe from Skidmore, Missouri