Can You See the Sky?
Her voice was strong, sunny, and as clear as her name, Crystal. Her accent was foreign but her question was unmistakable though illogical — “Can you see the sky?” Illogical because it had nothing to do with the reason we had her on the phone — or did it? Crystal was a buoyant yet deliberate SiriusXM representative who had suddenly popped up on my car’s blue-tooth phone like a chip-munk in a waste-land. Sirius had already acknowledged they had received our payment and now Mimi and I — sitting together in front of my car radio — had been exhaustively unsuccessful in trying to renew my connection with the Sirius streaming service. (Escape has become my favorite channel. No singing, just music.) Crystal was “here to help” us but before she could direct us with her technological know-how she had to make sure of the number one thing. She was going to send us a satellite signal, but she would be unable to connect us with the largest audio entertainment company in the world if we could not — from where we were sitting — “see the sky.” Simple, yet so profound. After we told Crystal we could see the sky she said, “Okay, click on Channel One to receive the signal and you’re good to go.”
You probably know where I’m going with this. Yes, this episode struck me as a perfect metaphor for a big part of our dual goal concerning this website (and our book). Looking back at the first blog almost a year ago (March 6, 2020) we said our goal is: to tell our story so that it may help others with their marriages — [others, who like us, hadn’t always] experienced calm waters and smooth sailing. [And our hope is that these couples] will at the same time be open to connect with the One Above who invented marriage. My blogs have been a mix of these two. Sometimes my blog is more heavily weighted with the first part of our goal; other times more with the second. This one is almost entirely devoted to number two. To clarify:
The SiriusXM satellite represents the One Above. “Being open” to connecting to that “One Above” is the “seeing the sky” part. My car radio represents the complicated inner being of each of our lives. God’s Word says we’re each born with a desire to connect with that Satellite that streams the life we each crave that will settle our souls. Case in point: The troubled, unprincipled, off-line 4th century, Augustine — after making that vital connection — said to God, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” As a result our entire western civilization still exults intellectually and spiritually from Saint Augustine’s influence. To make that connection may not, for us, be that far reaching but it will change our world. It changed mine. But before we can connect with the Number One being in the Universe we have to be open to it — able to “see the sky.”
The phrase “see the sky” has a lot of meaning to me — both really and figuratively. It began on a Boy Scout camping trip. It was late at night and all the other guys circling our flickering campfire in their sleeping bags had gone to sleep. In the cool fall air I had hunkered down into my bag. But I was still wide awake. (I’m a night person still.) I turned over on my back and shimmied up in my bag until my head became uncovered and I could see the sky. In the deep stillness my ears became attuned to the muffled sound of the river far below the bluff where we were perched in our bags. And my eyes became immediately fixed on the stars — bright in the clear moonless night. Something happened to me at that moment. I became consciously vulnerable. As I had just uncovered my head before the cosmos, I now uncovered myself before God. I threw off the barriers I had against him — barriers like being as afraid of him as I was of my big school principal who walked the halls in a dark suit with a terrifying air of authority. Looking at those stars I knew the answer to Isaiah’s question before I knew he had asked it: Look at the night skies: Who do you think made all this (40:25)? I knew God had made it all. I picked out one little star: “I want to know in person the One who made you.” I was open now. I had cleared the way between me and God — for good. I awaited a signal or whatever would be coming from him. I had positioned myself so that I could “see the sky.”
It was years before God sent a representative who made it crystal clear that an exorbitant price had been paid and all I had to do was open Channel One —my heart — to receive life-giving everlasting streaming from the Master of the Universe. That message in plain English goes like this: This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be [off-line forever]; by [receiving] him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life (John 3:16). In Honolulu one day I couldn’t get my Garmin GPS to work. No signal. Problem: I was in our garage. I couldn’t see the sky. God may be sending you a signal. Exit whatever garage you’re in. Make sure you can see the sky. Get serious.