If it was the Rapture, we missed it!

On Friday night, January 15, 2010, my wife and I went to bed about 10:20 P.M. We were both restless and I recall looking at the clock shortly after eleven before we fell asleep. But I was awakened sometime after midnight by the smell of smoke. My wife is in the habit of taking a heating pad to bed, and we had a humidifier running. So, I got up to check them to make sure they were not overheating. Then I opened the bedroom door and detected no smell of smoke in the rest of the house. By now my wife was up with a flashlight. We went to the front door and opened it slightly to sniff. That was it. The outside air was heavy with smoke, and I recalled earlier seeing our neighbor across the street burning leaves. We surmised the furnace was pulling in the smoky air from outside and went back to bed.

Before we could resume sleep, however, we suddenly became aware of a very bright light. I thought my wife had shined her flashlight at me for some reason, and I covered my eyes and said, “What’s that?!” She said she didn’t know. By the time I opened my eyes the light was gone. I jumped up and looked outside to see if a car had turned around next door, but there was no vehicle in sight and we hadn’t heard any vehicle sounds. I quickly went to each side of the house looking out of dark windows to see if I could seen anyone outside. There was no one.

The building next door has security lights on three corners of the building, but the one closest to our bedroom window has not worked for a long time, and it still was not working when I looked outside. The next day I went next door to ask the people who work there if anyone had been there late the night before who possibly could have turned on that light momentarily. They said the light has no switch; it’s a dusk to dawn automatic light, but they had not repaired it when it quit working since they had two others and they knew it shined into our bedroom window. I thanked them for that thoughtfulness, but again wondered aloud where that bright light could have come from in the middle of the night. I’m sure those men laughed when I left. But it’s still a mystery.

All I can say is, if it was the Rapture, we missed it! But I know that wasn’t the case, because my wife is still here. I might miss it, but she surely will not. So, that’s not what it was. Any guesses?