Seeing UFOs

Saturday was a dreary day, and a disappointing day for watching college football, as every team that I was cheering for came up short.  At one point, I walked into the kitchen to start dinner, and I happened to look out the window at the cloud-covered sky.

And I noted three red objects, in a triangle formation, coming from the north and moving south.  I called my husband, and together we saw a line of red objects following the first three.

We're guessing we saw eight to ten objects total, traveling together.  Through binoculars, they each looked like a big red light, with no visible profile or shape, and no sound.  As the objects went behind a leafy tree, they either disappeared in the clouds or turned east, and we lost sight of them.

Now I'm not one to believe in alien abductions or conspiracy theories.  But what I saw on Saturday gave me pause and made me reflect on my faith.

First, seeing something possibly "other-worldly" is a scary and humbling experience.  I confess that I felt a distinct sense of there being something credible "out there" - a physical and emotional feeling that I don't often have regarding my faith or my God. And I felt convicted that my faith isn't as strong as it should be.

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  John 20:29

I ask myself, "If I could see, would my faith be stronger and more real?  Would my mindset be more fearless and more forward thinking?"  And I pray, "Lord, increase my faith."

Second, as if in answer to that prayer, I got a boost in my faith.  I know that the Lord uses my encounters with His Word, with His creation, and all my daily experiences to increase my faith.  Encounters with the unexpected, the other-worldly - they change your perspective and your very self.  I love this passage about Peter and John testifying before the Jewish leaders:

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.  Acts 4:13   

Third, the cares of this world don't seem as big or ominous as I previously thought.  In fact, seeing those "UFOs" made me realize that if this Christian faith is real, as I believe it is, then life here is just a shadow of the life to come.  Because of Jesus's death and resurrection, and the steadfast love of God, I'm no longer condemned in my sins.  I don't have to fear this life or the one to come.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:38-39