Sunrise, Sunset

The sunset last night. Only God could have painted such a thing of beauty. I rushed for my phone and ‘captured’ it, three times. None of the pictures begins to do it justice.

I remember seeing the Grand Canyon a few years ago, after a lifetime of seeing pictures of it. None of them did it justice. It took my breath away, literally, and was almost a transcendental experience itself.

Some things of beauty can’t be captured, explained or passed on. They have to be experienced.  I can share my experience of being born again into God’s kingdom, and the most I can hope for is that the listener will be so excited about my experience that she will rush off and start asking God to reveal himself to her, too. She will never be impacted by his presence until she opens herself to be impacted by his presence.

May your day be shot through with beautiful ‘sunsets’ which can’t be explained, only experienced, and may you take time to drink those moments of beauty deep into your soul.

Sunsets

Watching the western sky gradually fire up from a stripey peach and pale blue to incandescent pinks and roses with intermittent streaks of grey: wow, what a show!

It’s been a spring-like day, full of promise, snowdrops blooming, daffodils and tulips pushing through the hard earth and growing. Mostly at this time of year when the sun is out I notice its position in the sky relative to our living/kitchen area. Sunlight seems to flood the room in a way it doesn’t during winter months. Welcoming. Warming. Full of promise. 

Spring is on the way. We’ve turned the corner. A new start. A fresh season.

Seasons of life aren’t quite so predictable as that. We might be facing our final sunsets at a young age or still rejoicing in an active life at 90. It all seems arbitrary and without rhyme nor reason.

And yet the Bible says that the Lord has numbered not only the hairs on our heads but also our days. He knows how many we have and he has plans – good plans – to fill up the days we have so that we can make the most of the time we have on this earth. Of course we have to work with him on those plans – but that seems a wise thing to do.

So, whether this is my last sunset or I have many more in front of me, I can rest in the assurance that God knows the plans that he has for me and at whatever age, final sunset or many more to go, they are plans for good. 

Sunrise follows sunset as sure as God lives. Life follows death. Praise him for his faithfulness and love.

Red Sky

The rhythm of my day yesterday and today found me out with Dusty at sunset and sunrise. Both were breath-taking.

The frost was sharp this morning; the promise of a freeze was there last night. Walking westward last night, a blazing sun was setting through the stand of trees sending shards of golden light towards me. The horizon was etched in vibrant red. 

This morning the beauty was in the east. I was too early for any golden shards of light but what I had instead before me was a horizon of hot pink blending into yellow, purple, all sorts of shades across the thin line of the skyline. 

Faced with such beauty, the cold doesn’t bite so cruelly. 

God has given us a creation that is full of surprises, full of colours, textures, designs and patterns. I have been blessed to have a home in a rural area where light pollution doesn’t reach me, nor does air or noise pollution. The noises I hear as I walk early or late are the cries of the owl or the whine of the bats. 

I grew up with the noise of the busiest freeway in southern California drowning out the lazy chirp of the crickets. 

I don’t take this beauty for granted. Thank you, God.