Moonlit Wonder

I don’t remember the beginning of the evening that well. I just remember being hundreds of miles from home flying through the backwoods of New York (or perhaps New Jersey) in a crowded mini van with the low gas light blinking ominously at us and dark hills whizzing by the window pane. Every once in awhile I would see a deer poke its’ head out of the woods and then return to the safety of the leafy darkness. After a while, whether “a while” was defined as only a few minutes or a hundred years, we reached the ferry. You see, we were on a road trip spanning from Texas to Maine and we needed that ferry to cross a lake (although the lake’s name I can no longer recall) to get back to civilization. There was no other option. We either made the ferry or we spent the night foodless and hotel-less in a gloomy parking lot. Luckily we made it to the ferry 10 minutes before it headed off on its’ last trip of the evening. As we pulled up, the Capitan motioned us to drive aboard, park, and stretch our legs. Although it was a summer night, the air was chilly and I pulled on a sweatshirt to keep out the cold. My parents and my little brother and little sister went inside the glassed in cabin but I remained up on deck. As the ferry pushed off from shore, I went to the front of the boat and leaned up against the railing, gazing out across the water. The world was as it should be. Unlike the Dallas area, the place had no lighting pollution and when you looked up you could see the stars spinning and dancing though the night sky in perfect harmony. Over the course of the trip, even the moon decided to make an appearance, casting a silver light across the distant trees and turning the landscape into a place only seen in fairy tales. Every once in awhile a fish would jump out of the water and make ripples that spread spiraled out, creating a momentary disturbance in the lake’s glassy surface. The wind brushed cool and refreshing against my face and blew my long hair streaming out behind me. I think God creates such scenes to show off his handy work . He combines the moon and the stars and the lake and the gentle breeze to give us mere mortals a chance to be in awe. “Lord, why did you create such a beautiful world?” I silently prayed. And I could have sworn I heard the wind whisper “For you to enjoy.”