If you’ve seen the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, then you are aware that in order to save Jack Sparrow, the crew sets out to see the green flash – which, according to them meant a soul was coming back to this world from the dead. Well, I know that Jesus saved us from death by His sacrifice for us and that if anything, there’s a flash of pure love that indicates when someone gives their heart to Him. However. There is such a thing as a green flash, and for the past few nights, we have been on a quest for me to see it.
According to Wikipedia and several other really interesting but over my head websites, a green flash happens when the air at sunset is stable and clear and light is refracted through the atmosphere as the sun goes down beyond the horizon. (Apparently you can see them sometimes at sunrise as well…) This refraction results in the appearance of green at the horizon, on the sun itself, and sometimes on the clouds above.
Cool. I thought Karl was kidding me when he told me he’d seen a green flash once when I was not on island. Now I am a believer.
Many evenings here on St. Croix, there is a cloud bank at the horizon that simply swallows up the sun. Those times leave the observer with a calm and colorless end to the day. Other times, sunsets are spectacular. The past few nights have been of the spectacular kind, and we have sat outside on our swing and risked burning our retinas by watching the sun disappear into the Sea. Last night was beautiful. Not only did we see a green hue just when and where the sun set, but then for a few minutes we watched as the bottoms of some of the clouds above the sunset changed, for a few seconds at a time, into varying and beautiful shades of green. Magical. Miraculous. Beautiful.
After the light show was fading, I has this sense that God had created that beautiful sunset and its glorious colors just for Karl and me as we sat there. I wondered if anyone else had taken the time just then to stop and actually pay attention enough to see the green flash or the accompanying orange and pink in the clouds that finally turned to gold before they faded into twilight. I wasn’t being prideful, I just wondered if anyone else but us had paid attention. That made me think about how often I don’t pay attention. I don’t watch the sunset, I don’t take time to see the beauty and the blessings that surround me all the time. I’m hoping and praying that you and I can be more mindful of the little but powerful acts of nature and of humanity that surround us in this world. May we all continue to search and see the green flashes in our lives.
