The Milky Way

Before going to Ada, I had only heard of the Milky Way, and it was something I could only imagine in a candy bar or in an issue of National Geographic. It seemed so distant, so far away, and I never knew it was something I would one day experience.

The first night in Ada, given that we were on a deserted island with only a few weak outdoor light bulbs, I saw "it". I looked up into the sky, and immediately knew the "milky", opaque band sweeping across the black sky, surrounded by sprinkles of stars, had to be "it". It was beautiful.

We walked behind our huts, away from the little bit of civilization behind us, feeling as if we were on the ends of the Earth. It felt like a movie. I was seeing stars I had never seen before, awestruck by seeing the Milky Way for the first time in my life. We laid on the sandy shores of the Atlantic, squeezed onto one sheet, marveling at God's creation.

It's hard to believe that there are as many stars in the sky as there are grains of sand on the beach, but that night it was a little easier to envision.