A Little Slice of Heaven

Orion.

"The Hunter."

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, a winter constellation.

(Taken in January, 2003, south of Phoenix.)

Shows up every year -- just before my birthday.

The "Orionoid Meteor Shower" peaks every year -- on my birthday -- sprinkling the sky with up to 20 meteors per hour.

On the belt slung around his waist -- a mark I wear in three different places -- he wears his sword.

The red dot mid-sword isn't a star at all, but a stellar nursery, known as the Great Nebula of Orion.

I guess everyone has something special that makes them feel linked to something beyond this world...something bigger than themselves.

Sometimes it's easy to forget that there's something bigger going on. A Grander Plan. Something to look for beyond the momentary collective downpour beneath the clouds that gather, exactly over our heads, whenever they feel like it.

For me, I see a little pattern, repeated on myself, in the heavens above, every year, around the time when God thought I should give this crazy-train we call mortality a try. A pretty self-absorbed way of thinking about it, I guess.

But maybe I see it backward. Maybe it's a pattern of Heaven He stamped me with. Just to remind me. Because sometimes we forget.