http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Image Credit & Copyright: Allisha Libby
Explanation: What's happening behind those houses? Pictured here are not auroras but nearby light pillars, a nearby phenomenon that can appear as a distant one. In most places on Earth, a lucky viewer can see a Sun-pillar, a column of light appearing to extend up from the Sun caused by flat fluttering ice-crystals reflecting sunlight from the upper atmosphere. Usually these ice crystals evaporate before reaching the ground. During freezing temperatures, however, flat fluttering ice crystals may form near the ground in a form of light snow, sometimes known as a crystal fog. These ice crystals may then reflect ground lights in columns not unlike a Sun-pillar. The featured image was taken in Fort Wainwright near Fairbanks in central Alaska.
Here is today's picture-of-the-day from NASA! The light from the nearby town is reflected in a myriad of colors called Light Pillars, which are stunning!! Upon reflection (no pun intended), these "pillars" remind me of faithful Christians, which comprise the church belonging to God. I have listed a few scriptures below which led to this thought...
Exodus, Chapter 13 (WEB)
21 Yahweh went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, that they might go by day and by night:
1 Timothy, Chapter 3 (WEB)
14 These things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly; 15 but if I wait long, that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. 16 Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great:
God was revealed in the flesh,
justified in the spirit,
seen by angels,
preached among the nations,
believed on in the world,
and received up in glory.
Acts, Chapter 2 (WEB)
38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.” 40 With many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”
Isaiah, Chapter 62 (WEB)
2 The nations shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of Yahweh shall name.
Revelation, Chapter 3 (WEB)
12 He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will go out from there no more. I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my own new name.
God lead Israel into the promised land by a pillar of cloud and of fire. In the New Testament, we learn that the church became the pillar of God and all those baptized into that body are pillars within it. And those pillars come in all sizes, shapes and colors, but they all have one thing in common- Jesus.
From Heaven to Earth and back again, how wonderful- and colorful too!!!