October Surprise

"You missed the celebrity," I said to my husband as we were exiting the guitar store yesterday. We had come to Wichita to pick up our son at the airport, and they hadn't wanted to miss the opportunity to make a stop and indulge their shared passion: checking out guitars.

I was waiting for Howard to make his purchase (no, not the $3,000 instrument he had strummed), but a pack of guitar picks. I sat on a bench half noticing a man take a large box from the counter and go toward the door, after the smiling sales clerk had exchanged animated small talk with him. Just then the clerk approached me and said, "Did you see him? That was Michael Martin Murphey!" At my blank expression, he mentioned the title of a song that he had made famous, but I was clueless.

"Tell my son over there," I urged, pointing to Greg at another counter. "He would probably know him." Greg's reaction was a wide-eyed "Where?" as he rushed out the door in pursuit of the customer. He caught up with us on the way to the car.

"I can't believe it!" he exclaimed. "I shook hands with Michael Martin Murphey!" He also couldn't believe we had never heard of him. He patiently explained that he was famous in the 70s and sang a hit called "Wildfire." On our ride home he pulled the singer up on his iPhone and had me listen to the song.

"He said he was on the way to Oklahoma City for an appearance, and had stopped to buy a guitar," Greg said. He wasted no time in calling his brother, Trevor, who was just as impressed as Greg was. I enjoyed their excitement at a celebrity sighting, even if some of the star's brightness may have diminished by now.

As Greg napped on the way home, Howard and I commented on the colorful fall foliage along the highway, marveling at the wonder and precision of God's creation. We pondered over whether the going down of the sap caused the leaf color changes, or whether it was less sunlight and shorter days. "I'll ask Siri," I quipped as I brought up a convenient source of information on the phone.

Immediately there was an encyclopedia article explaining everything about photosynthesis, the process by which leaves produce food for trees and other plants, and how chlorophyll reacts to longer nights and less sunlight by disappearing. When the green pigment is gone from the leaves, the other colors that have been there all along are revealed, giving us our autumnal show of red, yellow, orange and brown in the beautiful scenery of fall.

Meeting or glimpsing celebrities may be thrilling, but nothing compares to the awe inspired by seeing the majestic work of our Creator, and contemplating the intricacies and perfect design of our world. "The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament sheweth his handywork," Psalm 19:1.