The Day the "Sham-Rock" Landed in Our Backyard
What a Meteor Reminded Me About Life's Unanswered Questions
(Author Note: For this story, I’ve included multiple links to social media videos and news accounts for those who wish to see more of the story.)
A Thundering Noise!
Almost 9 a.m., on Saint Patrick’s Day! I hurried upstairs to brush my teeth before heading out for Tuesday morning Bible Study. This would be my first time back in over a month due to oral surgery and subsequent illness, so I didn’t want to be late.
Suddenly, I heard a loud noise, a thundering and rumbling in the skies overhead. What was that? Trucks? Planes? A rocket? Maybe ‘Thundersnow’? After all, our weather exhibited its own version of March madness — we’d basked in a balmy 70 degrees two days earlier, then the thermometer dipped to 18 freezing degrees overnight with lake-effect snow squalls. Brrr!
No, this sound rumbled on much too long to be thunder, and shook the house. What was going on? Could my husband hear this in his basement office?
And then, BOOM!
What Was That?!?
I hurried to my bedroom window to see if perhaps some giant construction equipment lumbered down the street and if there’d been a collision of some sort. Nothing. Just blue skies amid intermittent clouds, but no storms.
So, what just happened? It was a mystery, full of uncertainty. Checking my time, I rushed downstairs.
“Bye, honey, I have to go. Hey, did you hear that rumbling? Or feel the house shake?”
“No, what happened? I didn’t feel anything. Musta missed it on my call.”
I knew I hadn’t imagined it! So, I did what we all do in this situation--performed a quick Google search.
“What was that rumbling in NE Ohio right before 9 a.m.?”
Making Sense of What Didn’t Make Sense
The first report that seemed legit came from a local news weather station, claiming we’d had a small earthquake measuring 2.2 on the seismograph. Well, that certainly made sense! I relayed that news to my husband without reading the whole article and scooted out the door.
By the time I arrived at the church, others were debating and googling as well. It was reassuring to know I wasn’t the only one who’d experienced the strange rumblings and felt confused. No one likes uncertainty, and the search was on for an explanation.
“Hey, they’re saying that it was a meteor!” I kept hearing.
A meteor?!? Really? In our neck of the woods? We debated that possibility, then settled in for our study. I checked the earthquake article again, and found it was actually dated for Friday, March 13, the previous Friday. Apparently, there WAS a small earthquake in the local area of Parma a few days earlier, which I hadn’t known. Wow, what a crazy week!
Once I got home, I saw people posting video compilations from cameras all around our area. Some caught a flaming object streaking through the sky, and some recorded the sonic BOOM that shook the earth.
Surprisingly, it seemed that our region had been visited by some cosmic space rock that had fallen from the sky.
“Honey! We could’ve been obliterated today by that meteor had it fallen on our house! We should celebrate that we’re still alive!” (I proceeded to text my kids in case they needed to visit us soon! lol )
“That’s not how it works.” James clued me in. “They usually explode and break up before they hit. Except for some really huge ones that have left indentations around the world, like that big site in Arizona.”
We anxiously awaited the newscast that evening for the latest information. Not only was the meteor covered on our local stations, but on national and international news as well.
According to NASA and the organizations that track such things, this meteor measured some 6 feet across (the size of a small car) and weighed about 7 tons. The thundering sound occurred once it broke through the atmosphere, and the sonic BOOM as it broke the sound barrier (traveling over 40K mph) and exploded into pieces. Interesting!
Maps of the meteoric track indicated a landing site close to Medina, Ohio, about an hour southwest of us. Meteor hunters descended on the Medina area for “meteor chasing,” wearing special equipment belts to help detect any magnetic fragments in suspected space rocks. (I never knew this was a thing!) Since my brother’s family lives in Medina, I began bugging him to go find a space rock for us to examine. :)
By that evening, the first black, striated rock suspected to be a piece of the meteor was found on someone’s deck. Instructions were not to pick them up with bare hands but to protect them in a plastic bag or container.
A Fitting Name — “The Sham-Rock”!
Two days later, multiple pieces of the meteorite had been found. Dr. Bill Cooke of NASA’s Marshall Space Center recorded an IG video, stating “…based on a recent orbit and based on the meteorites people are beginning to find, it looks like that 7-ton rock came from the inner asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.”
The last time a meteor was recorded in our little corner of Ohio had been in the 1800’s, so this wasn’t an everyday event. And because it happened on March 17th, the meteor, apparently big enough to be called an asteroid, earned a new nickname: “The Sham-Rock”!
All of this made for an unusual and exciting day, shaking us out of our ordinary drudgery as we speculated on what might be. (Are you old enough to picture the Disney Martian Man here with me? “You’re making me VERY ANGRY!!”--Grin--)
Lessons From the Backyard Meteor
As I reflected on this fun little incident, I was reminded how uncomfortable it is to face the uncertainties of life.
We live through unexplainable happenings—some light and joyful, others marked by deep tragedy. Our human nature longs to make sense of it all, searching for meaning and explanation.
More often than we’d like, answers don’t come. Especially in the hard places, we’re left with questions: What is going on? How did this happen? Why would God allow this? What sense does this make? How could anything good come out of this?
As I finish my 60th spin around the sun this week, I’m realizing more and more how little I truly know…
I don’t know why a meteor burst through the atmosphere near my home on Tuesday, but I’ve been given the grace of another day.
I don’t know why I got sick a week after oral surgery, only that I’ve had no choice but to walk through it.
I don’t know why we lose loved ones in painful ways, but I know we must grieve and hold fast to the hope of heaven.
And I don’t know why wars and famines unfold before Jesus returns, but as His followers, we are called to persevere in hope, and to love, serve, and pray for those affected.
The one thing I do know? Jesus, our Lord and Savior, holds our future. An eternal one, secure in Him and shared with others.
Yes, a meteor fell into our backyard on Tuesday, St. Patrick’s Day, 2026. After traveling millions of miles, it arrived with a simple reminder: life is full of uncertainty, but our Father remains the one true Rock on which we stand.
“He only is my rock and my salvation… I shall not be shaken” (Psalm 62:6),
for in Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17).
And in Him, we are held steady, no matter what falls from the sky.
Your Turn!
Have you ever experienced an event like this? How did you interpret it?
For Worship!
(Naturally, this had to be the song for this post!)
On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand and Cornerstone (Jeremy Riddle)
*Image by kanenori on pixabay.com
I love this, Jen. Thanks for the research. Good article!
I love this, Jen! What a great title. I hope your brother finds some space rocks for you!