Magical Moments: Seeing the Aurora Borealis for the First Time

If you are on social media, chances are you heard or saw photos of the surprise aurora borealis that wowed more than a dozen states on Thursday night. And Minnesota was one of those states. Around 10:00 PM on Thursday, one of my friends posted that the Northern Lights were showing in the sky, although faint. I went to my back deck and while the lights on our little town could be seen, the Northern Lights were visible indeed!

So I ran to the front of the house and when I looked up, behold— the aurora borealis. I could not believe it. I have to point out that the lights were fairy faint to the naked eyes, but when I took a photo with my iPhone using the night time setting, the lights came to light in all their glory. It was wild! At that moment I was so thankful for technology. I ran back inside the house, and put on a jacket, got in my car, and off I went to look for a spot with more darkness. Luckily, I live in the country, and within 2 minutes I was on a pitch black country road. Now, normally I would be afraid in the dark, but friends, when I got out of my car, I was speechless, because even though they were faint, the sky was full of greenish pillars of light. I immediately started crying in awe of God’s creation.

Remembering the night setting on my phone camera, I tried to take photos and was even more in awe of what I saw. See below for some of the images. Y’all— seeing the Northern Lights is one of the top three items in my Bucket List. I cannot tell you all the emotions in me as I watched these pillars of light rise high above in the night sky. The shapes reminded me of cathedral spires. They were awe inspiring and so overwhelming to take it all in. To be honest, I still cannot believe that it happened.

Let me tell you, as I stood there taking it all in, I felt very small in this immense world. It was just so overwhelming. It was a frigid night, but was so worth being outside to experience this moment. Especially because apparently it was a suprise. Astronomers were not really expecting that strong display of the aurora borealis on Thursday, which made it all the more special. Thank you, God for allowing me to experience this in my lifetime.