METEORITES

In movies they are moon-size objects, hurtling through space toward a hapless New York City or Washington or some other densely populated region. 

In real life, though, most meteors are no larger than a speck of dust or, at most, a pea. This fact notwithstanding, the movies do have one important thing right: When observed, a meteor’s arrival on Earth is truly a dramatic event.

Referring to what it called a “super-bright fireball,” Astronomy magazine described the sighting of a meteor in southwestern Wisconsin earlier this year. “The streak of light, which ended in an explosion, was one of the brightest fireballs widely observed in recent times and presumably
produced a reasonably large quantity of meteorites on the ground,” wrote editor David Eicher. 

At that point, however, only one unremarkable peanut-size piece had been discovered. “It is on the outside a dull black, matte finish, which is the fusion crust from when it became very hot falling through the atmosphere,” said Eicher.

How paradoxical that a single speck of space dust can light up the sky for miles, that an estimated 100 to 1,000 tons of it falls to the earth each day, yet almost none is ever recovered and almost none is ever seen. How paradoxical that the very substance of the universe is careening toward us even now, and we are blissfully unaware.

How much more paradoxical that the grace of the Creator continually descends upon and permeates our lives, unnoticed, uncharted, undeserved.