Constellations in the Sky[scrapers]

I lay on my back and hold my breath. The night sky above me is far more beautiful than I had ever seen it before. The small window opening up to the universe was surrounded by trees, fringing the edge of my vision. The music of crickets and other nocturnal creatures whispered sweetly in the background of my enraptured mind. The group that I was with was praying aloud. How could I close my eyes? I didn't even want to blink. Silently, to myself, I fervently prayed, "Just one shooting star, God. I need to know that You really are there..." My heart was pounding with expectation. I had never seen a falling star before, and it seemed that confidence in my faith rested in the glimmer of a falling piece of rock in the dark night, light years away. I was young and naive, and like Gideon, I was putting my fleece out. Doubts, the arsenal of the enemy, had riddled my weak faith. This seemed like the perfect time and way for God to remind me that He was really there, that He cared. I was a star-struck thirteen year old, and He who I was fawning over wasn't on the cover of the latest Seventeen. I stared so intently at the stars that I could have probably willed one of them to break loose from its black felt background and crash through the atmosphere. In a split seconds my hopes were fulfilled as a bright light blazed a path through the sky and vanished in the beat of a heart. I thanked God, and closed my eyes. I felt the grass beneath me and the openness of something greater than me above. I felt so incredibly small, and at the same time I felt that I was a part of something so grand and marvelous that in being swallowed up in the immensity of it, I was as high as the heavenly constellations and as far-reaching as the galaxy spilling over my head. I was alive, and I found that life in Him.Fast forward seven years. I lay in my bed, looking out my window on the seventh floor. I can't even see the sky. The skyscrapers and high rises overlap, creating an impregnable wall between my eyes and the great beauty of the sky beyond. Yet, had I been able to see the sky, the unmeasurable amount of light radiating from Chicago would have dimmed the glory of the millions of starts and would leave only six or seven visible to my naked eye. In exchange for the brilliance of the constellations, I had the patterns of lights that consistently burned through the night in the city. The flickering of television screens through the windows of neighboring condominiums replaced my favorite star that flickered different colors. The halo of light that wrapped the top of the Hancock tower now dominated the lights of windows like the moon outshone the stars. I felt far removed from the natural beauty of God's creation, and felt suffocated from the fabricated galaxy that glared at me from my window. Instead of trees filled with sleeping birds, owls, and bats, a billboard advertising for Office Supply towers outside my window, with large fake crows, seagulls, and pigeons attached on top. I don't hear the chilling howl of coyotes, but the blaring of horns and the screeching of tires. I sigh, and continue to stare out my window. He feels so far away. He will woo me another way...