Petrified Lightning

Luke 17:24 -- "For the son of Man in his day will be like lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other."

photo: John Shippee - johnshippeephotography.com

Beach combing is an absolute favorite of mine. In this regard I am richly blessed with several types of beaches from which to choose to hike - according to mood and energy level. If I want a good stiff climb and lots of photo ops, I choose Big Talbot Island with it's rocks, fallen oaks, and jagged out-crops. If I want slow and lazy and shark's teeth, it's Mickler's Landing at Ponte Vedra. If I'm in the mood for dipping my toes and a gentle natural pedicure, I drive on down to Crescent Beach with it's miles of soft white sand and wide open coast line. For nature trails, tidal lagoons, natural wetlands, and inter-coastal run-off, it's Guana National Reserve with it's lush vegetation and historical remnants of lost Indian homesteads. [just be prepared for lots of mosquitoes] Want a little mixture? Head up to Fort Clinch with it's old revolutionary war reinactors and fort ruins - where the Amelia River runs into the Atlantic.

There are so many, many options and to be honest, I take this glut for granted.

photo: Bruce Lipsky, FL Times Union

The one thing that will keep me off the beaches that I love so very much - is lightning. And we get it all the time. In fact, the hub of lightning research is right here in my home state and we often bear the nick-name "lightning capital of the world" [though statistically speaking, that isn't really true]. There are few places on this planet of ours that can boast of more cloud to ground strikes and we Florida residents can prove as much with the millions of dollars in repairs and/or replacements due to damage caused by these strikes on an annual basis.

In fact, having gone a week without internet access due to a doozy of a lightning storm last week, there are often times when I hate the stuff. Don't get me wrong, I love a good thunder storm - but last week as the boys and I huddled in the middle of the living room with our hands over our ears and our shoulders hunched in fear we counted at least four - count 'em FOUR - cloud to ground strikes within one square block of our house. One of them hit a pine tree in our back yard, and another had me seeing smoke billowing up from our neighbor's house - and let's not forget the all annoying strike that hit the Comcast relay and networks of communication wires resulting in said loss of internet access. In all of my history in the Sunshine State, I have never been in a storm with that much electricity flying through the air. It was very truly terrifying.

When I came across Luke 17:24 today it took me a few moments to wrap my head around the comparison between our Lord Jesus Christ and lightning. At first, I felt like that was a very negative and even a little disrespectful analogy and puzzled over the use of it for some time. But then I gave it a bit more thought and realize the verse is actually, spot on.

It is true that there is great power in lightning and there can be no denying that when electrified storm clouds go crazy, a dark sky lights up brilliantly. There are also things that happen during a lightning strike that could not happen any other way.

For example; lightning cleans the air. Dust, pollens, and other pollutants fuse together due to intense heat and are more likely to fall heavily to the ground bound together than on their own. An electrically charged atmosphere also encourages the release and burning off of aromatics such as pine sap and floral pollens. The air often smells wonderful after a lightning storm.

Heat and pressure from lightning also turn nitrogen and other air born gasses into useful compounds like nitric acid and nitric oxide. These act as natural fertilizers that encourage plant growth by allowing them to make vital proteins.

There is obvious beauty in lightning. Just look at some of the amazing photography shot during storms over the years.

Petrified Lightning

But a little surprise that's often hard to find takes the cake when it comes to the benefits of cloud to ground lightning strikes and sheds some light [pun intended] on the chosen description of Jesus in verse 24.

It's called petrified lightning and it only happens when lightning hits the sand.

When intense heat mix with sand and other minerals - fulgurites are formed. Where once were tiny grains of broken sea shells, coral, and almost microscopic traces of iron, ruby, and quarts - a clumpy, sometimes shiny mass of "beach glass" greets the eye in fascinating shapes and structures. There is beauty in petrified lightning. There is a wonder in the tubes etched out and frozen into existence where the lightning digs through the particles of sand in it's journey to the ground from the sky. There is something special about this process and the very rare opportunity to find this little gift in nature.

Inside Petrified Lightning

There is strength, might, and light in a cloud to ground strike. There is a cleansing that happens in the air that becomes so super-charged with electricity. There is beauty when lightning hits the earth in just the right spot and the heat forms fulgurites.  And there is life when a long buried seed bursts open in the flash of an electric jolt and a brand new tree starts to grow.

I can see that Luke 17:24 has it exactly right. Our Savior, Jesus Christ is all of these things - and so very much more.