Awe!

I have always been fascinated with flight and felt a connecting point between it, myself, and God. Today I had the strangest and most awe inspiring experience I have had in a long time. I was working on my sprinkler system in the back yard when I heard a jet flying in low from behind me. I looked over my shoulder and saw a small twin engine jet, smaller than a 727 but bigger than a Lear jet flying at about 1000 or 1500 feet, pretty low (almost as low as the general aviation Cessnas that fill the sky like gnats here near the Millard airport). I thought that was strange but went back to work. About 20-30 minutes later I heard a much bigger jet coming from the same direction. I was in the front yard now. I looked up and saw a much bigger jet flying at around the same height as the previous one. It reminded me of the opening scene of LOST Season 3 Episode 1 where the others are watching the plane break apart right over their heads. It was that low! But there was something wierd on top of the plane. It looked like an object was piggybacking on the jet. I looked away for a moment and thought the only plane I knew that did that was the 747 that carries the Space Shuttle back to Florida when it lands in California. I looked back up again. I couldn't believe it! IT WAS THE SPACE SHUTTLE PIGGYBACKING ON A 747!!!! "Its the Space Shuttle! Its the Space Shuttle! Its the Space Shuttle!" I kept shouting to Lee Ann. It was enormous and it was right over the top of my house. I wasn't expecting the Space Shuttle. I wasn't outside waiting for it. I had just happened to be outside and just happened to pay attention to the jet noise. 10 seconds of indifference and I would have missed it. It was like seeing Jesus or Superman flying through the sky. I looked up and down the street and other Fathers up and down the street turned 10 years old again just like me. We were all collectively incredulous at what had just happened and we were desperately trying to get our wives, kids, other neighbors to grasp the significance before it vanished out of sight again.

The Space Shuttle is like a celebrity to me. I lived at Edwards Air Force Base when they were doing the first glide tests on the Enterprise in the late 70's. We got let out of school to go line up along the flight line and watch it land. They took it up on the 747, let it go, and the pilot would glide it back to the ground. Our next door neighbor went up on the Shuttle that launched the Hubble Space telescope. The first guy movie my dad ever took me to was Moonraker a James Bond movie centered around the Shuttle program. In the opening scene the Space Shuttle is stolen right off the back of a 747. In 9th grade the Challenger exploded and brought school to a halt.

For those who aren't aviation geeks I can't explain it, but I can't remember feeling AWE like I did today maybe ever before. I didn't know what to do or say except to draw the attention of others and hope that they looked and caught the significance of what they saw.

Why such awe?

It was totally unexpected and unannounced. A real surprise.

It was something that was familiar to me, mostly through the national media, in my own front yard. It was out of place. It didn't belong here.

It was low and slow enough that there could be no doubt that I saw what I thought I saw.

This gave me a tiny insight to what Peter, James, and John must have felt when they saw Jesus transfigured and Moses and Elijah stood beside him. Awe induced stupidity. It was awe-some!