The Cross
This cross image was taken on March 30, 2008. There is no explanation, other than God's Grace, that I was led to a secluded spot on a Sunday afternoon and found myself standing at the foot of a cross at the exact moment when a halo appeared around the sun.
A photograph is the recording of a split-second moment in time. A device opens and captures that exact light. And then the moment passes, never again to be repeated. God's timing and attention to detail is so incredible when I trace back how unlikely it was that I should have even been there that day.
It is about a forty-mile drive to get to Dickinson. We had just learned about The Feast of the Divine Mercy and that was why we went to church there that day. Divine Mercy is the second Sunday of Easter. It has to do with a devotion to invoke the Divine Mercy of Jesus for the world.
On the way home, I wanted to show my family a unique area where a cross and grotto was located. My dear friend, LoAnn, had shown me this spot before and I brought my camera because it was such a beautiful area. My husband, Reed and two of our younger children, Matt and Kari and I walked in towards the area. Matt commented that it was odd that even though it was early afternoon and the sun was shining, we could see our breath. There were ice crystals in the air. My family looked at the cross and then walked a distance away from me. The sky was a very beautiful blue that afternoon and the cross towered above me as I tried to figure out the best place to stand. I took one photo and that was when I actually noticed the halo around the sun. I had never seen such a sight and I felt like this was a holy moment for me. I didn't know what I was seeing or how long it would last. As I looked into the sun, I learned if I kept very still, the center of the cross blocked the sun enough so that I could photograph the cross and the halo. Any slight movement on my part resulted in light flooding into my eyes too intensely and it was so bright it blinded me. So I knelt down to steady myself from swaying and used a photography trick of holding my breath to remain steady. I remember saying a prayer and breathing in deeply and taking as many photos as I could until I had to exhale. I was able to take only a few images because at that point I was seeing spots. I knew what I was doing was not a good idea to be looking into the sun through the camera like that. I really could not even see well enough to review what I had. I needed to stop and let my vision to return to normal. I joined my family and showed them the halo. No one quite knew what to make of it but it was very beautiful. It actually remained for us to see for about thirty minutes as we were driving home. I didn't even know what my camera had captured until I returned home and uploaded them onto the computer. I did some research and found that sun halos contain millions of tiny ice crystals high in the clouds caused by the splitting of light and refraction and reflection of the glints of light from these ice crystals. The crystals must be oriented and positioned just so with respect to your eye, for the halo to appear.
This cross is the most important and most beautiful of all the thousands of images I have captured. This is the actual image, no Photoshop edits. I could not improve upon it if I tried. I know there was a reason I had my camera and we were there that day by the cross the exact moment a halo appeared around the sun. I knelt at the foot of a cross that day on the Feast of Divine Mercy and prayed. The word divine means coming from God and this image is a gift. God's gift.
