LIGHTNING

Tonight: lightning, lightning, lightning,
zigzag bolts and jolts and volts
of electricity zapping, flashing,
crashing downwards, down towards the
ground, or clouds tasering clouds
above the Bay and out beyond that.
I’m watching in awe. I’m like the paparazzi,
taking picture after picture with my eyes
- flash, flash, flash, click, click, click.
I’m seeing fireworks. God! I’m seeing You,
God, in these great pictures of great power.
Then I ruin it all in a moment - with the
question: “God, why doesn’t this happen
in prayer? God, why don’t I feel your
presence like this in church?” Then came
the loud answer: thunder and a whole flow
and series of a dozen or more electric shocks,
shooting across the horizon - causing me
 to laugh, to say, to pray, "Okay, God,
I got it. Dumb, dumb, dumb! You’re
telling me, yes, you’re yelling to me,
'Take what you get it and enjoy it.
See what you see and savor it. Know
what you know when you know it.'"

© Andy Costello, Reflections, 2011

Photograph by Dan Mccauley

found on line.