Tears of St. Lawrence

The meteor shower that comes this time of year is called, "The Tears of St. Lawrence" because it always comes around the time of this martyr's feast day.  I look up into the sky at pre dawn to see a "shooting star" as we call the meteor.  Now Rilke, the poet, has a great image in his last of the Love Poems to God, "The Book of Hours."  I use it in reference to the night sky.  It holds God's face in its blackened hands.  The dark, seemingly almost empty sky is the face of God.  When the meteor flashes for a brief moment, it is like God's blinking of the eye.  A tear drops from the eye.  It is a tear of joy that I am there in the dark, that I have left my creature comforts to go into the chill night to watch and wait, looking into the darkness.  The tear is also of sadness, that I spend so much of my day in busyness that ignores the Presence.  The Good News is that God is always here, even in the seeming dark emptiness, in the luminous darkness, ever loving.  You probably missed the night sky in your bright city life.