Watching the Sun Set

"The gray sky stretches from horizon to horizon, blank, as light clouds cover the face of the sky.  Suddenly a jagged rip in the clouds reveals the sun, shining brightly at the end of the day.  Around the rip in the clouds it's a deep blue gray fading back to gray as it get's farther away from the sun.  As the horizon dips to meet the earth, the bottom of the clouds are set afire by the rays of the swiftly setting sun as it sinks beneath and behind the clouds covering the canopy of the sky.  And, as the sun dips below the horizon, the gray clouds are still dark and bleak while their undersides are covered in a blaze of pinks, reds, and oranges."

I just wrote that as I looked out the window over my shoulder.  Some days I don't learn some great revelation that will change how I live or find out some astounding truth about my God; some days I'm simply watching the sun set.  The sky simply lights up in an astounding display of colors that put so many 'beautiful' things to shame using only the sun and the clouds.  And that's exactly how I need it, if I was experiencing revelation every day I might either become insensitive to it by it becoming normative, or I might becoming numbed by the constant exposure to revelation.

Or am I being shown something right now?  In the middle of a this gorgeous light show something can be seen beyond the colors.  I see a message.  It's a message for me from someone who deals on a lot grander scale than just skies most of the time, he's busy moving the universe and changing hearts.  Yet sometimes he reaches out and touches the sky when I'm looking just to say, "I'm here, and this is from me."

Sometimes I'm so focused on changing now and I want results immediately.  It's somewhat like the sun lighting up the bottom of the clouds, I try to make a sunset that reaches the whole sky, but am only able to light up the underside of the clouds; the part of the sunset that is even blocked form view if there are any trees.  I feel like I'm not changing anything important, just the part you can't see.  Yet as time goes on and the sun sets farther, the light escapes the bottom of the clouds and starts slipping up them, reaching higher.  It's no longer bright, vibrant colors, but purples and dark violets.  I see change happening yet I get discouraged as it doesn't seem to be what I was expecting or wanting to happen.  If I turn away there, I wait for the next time a sunset starts and see if maybe then I can change.  However, as you keep watching, which takes time, you see the colors change.  The clouds give way before the light of the sun and the pinks, reds, and oranges light up the whole sky as the sun finally dips completely below the horizon.  The change in the sky is complete, from drab gray to a soft expanse of fading color.  The change in me can as complete if I wait on the Lord to complete it, but if I leave or look away, thinking it's taking too long or not seeing the change I want, then I miss out on the possibilities God has for me and the change he has planned in my life.

Well there we go, guess I am always learning after all.  And as the sunset ends it gets even more vivid for the last few minutes, well here's hoping that as what God's teaching me right now draws to a close I shine all the more brilliantly for Him.


Watching God's Color in My Life,
Joshua