Not for the Naked Eye

Thoughts on auroras and the unseen world.

Friends,

Our neighbor texted me the other night. “Northern Lights are out,” she wrote, then added this pic of the sky above our house and barn:

Eager for the magic, I raced outside . . . but saw only monochrome. Inky blackness. Crystalline stars. Writhing streaks of gray.

Clearly, central fields at the backs of my eyes were sleeping. The dark had disabled my retinal cones . . . cells that catch and interpret color.

And this night’s aurora wasn’t intense enough to awaken them.

Instead, the photoreceptors on duty as I peered into the night were rod cells, registering only shape and motion in the dim.

No color at all.

But through my my camera’s lens?

This:

And this:

And this:

A dance of brilliance and warmth I couldn’t see with strictly human vision.

How apt, I thought. He’s teaching again. This time, on the unseen realm all around us.

Another lesson from the Creator of beauty, of nature, of science, and of the spiritual world.

But to what purpose, this lesson?

To alert us to activity in darkness? To awaken us to real, otherworldly societies invisible to the naked eye?

To revive our trust in color and Light when night is deep?

To prompt us, day and night, to sing?

Oh, Creator Jesus.

“Lord, I want to see.“ —Luke 18:41

Your thoughts? I’d love to hear.

📙📙📙From my Bookery:

WINNERS:

Congrats to Carol McGlade! Carol, you won a copy of Kendra Broekhuis’ novel Nearly Beloved in my January giveaway! Please send me your snail mail address, and I’ll see that the book’s sent right off to you.

Too, we’ve emailed winners of last month’s First Chapters Book Giveaway, published elsewhere on social media platforms. Now we’re just waiting to hear back from those of you who won. If you entered through my social media platforms (or those of any of the three-dozen-plus authors participating), be sure to check both your regular email and spam folders. One of you won 37 books! A couple more of you won bundles of several books each!

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A NEW GIVEAWAY: This month, one of you subscriber friends can win a copy of my novel Leaning on Air! Winner of Reader’s Favorite, Nautilus, American Fiction, Best Book, and ABF International Book Awards, it’s a standalone companion to Sugar Birds.)

To enter, reply with the word “AIR” in the subject line, and I’ll drop your name in the hat.:)

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Meanwhile, even five weeks into 2026, my husband and I are still seeing lots of determination at our local gym. I overheard one guy ask another how many pushups he could do.

“All of them,” he said.

Love,

Cheryl