Sky Blue Pink

When I step outside at the very moment the sun is beginning to make its decline into sleep to end yet another day in my life, I am always immediately silenced and rendered motionless by the incomparable beauty of a pink sunset. I love all sunsets but there's just something more breathtaking to me about a soft blue sky that's painted with streaks of pale pink clouds. It makes me feel instantly serene.

My grandfather, Grandpa George, called such a sunset "sky blue pink". It was a favorite of his too. He used to point pink sunsets out to his only son, my father, when they worked the land together on their farm. I imagine my grandfather saw too many of these sunsets to even count in his eighty five years of life. He grew up on a farm and then raised his own family on yet another farm. He rode the kind of tractor that was open to the air with no enclosure around him. Just him sitting in the open air surrounded by God's creation all the days of his life. He was a quiet, kindhearted, peaceful, Godly man who was gentle in every way. Oftentimes when I see a pink sunset I think of him and the many ways he made my childhood happy, secure and wholesome. He and my grandmother took me to their little country church. It was the old fashioned type with polished wood floors and pews that shown and smelled of lemons. There was a lovely steeple at its top. I loved everything about that church but the best things about it were its Pastor and its people. Those days of my childhood Sunday School, when I could feel the presence of God coursing through His people around me, will be forever engrained in my memory.

I also feel God all around me when I look up and behold such a wondrous sight in the evening sky. If you ask me how I know there is a God I will tell you this ...

Look at the sunrise, the sunset, the ocean as it waves and all of the forces of nature with all of their power and beauty. Stand completely still. Look, feel and breathe it all in. God created it all. Nothing so miraculous could ever take place accidentally. It's all too well ordered. That may seem simple but I believe our faith is meant to be simple. After all, aren't we told to come to Jesus as little children? {Matthew 18:1-5}. I really think we're meant to keep our childlike wonder throughout our lifetime.

I honestly believe that God intended for nature to teach us so many things about Him and ourselves. God likes beauty, order and all things in their own time. It is we humans who try to run ahead of God, ourselves and everything under the sun so much of the time to do ... What? I'm not always sure actually. Yes, there is much to be done on any and every given day, to be sure. However, there is a lot to be said for living in the moment and letting tomorrow care for itself. {Matthew 6:25-34}. When we try to live past today and this moment we miss so much. Not only do we miss the beauty of everything that surrounds us, but we also risk feeling disconnected from our family and most certainly from God. In order to hear the voice of God, we must sometimes be very still and silent. These are things that can be terribly challenging in this fast paced world of today. That's why I love nature so much. No matter what hour, day, month year or century it is, nature keeps her own pace. The pace God set for her. I think God set a pace for each one of us too and we spend a lifetime trying to figure it out or even reset it. We all have different callings on our lives and our own path we are supposed to take but the One Thing that is the same for all of us is the constancy of God. He is there, everywhere, whether we know it or not. He may seem at times to change but He never truly does. He remains the same today as He was yesterday and as He will be tomorrow. {Hebrews 13:8}.  We just need to breathe Him in and learn to see Him in everything. God cannot be separated from anything. He is in every birdsong, every breeze, every sunset and He continually envelops us with so much beauty and evidence of His presence because He wants us to really live life to the fullest and enjoy the blessings in our lives. So while you're going about all the many things you have to do today and tomorrow remember to take moments here and there to stand still and look up at the sunrise or sunset, listen to the birds, feel the breeze against your skin and give thanks to The One who created such incredible things with You in mind.

"Look to the birds of the air, that they do not sow,
nor reap nor gather into barns,
and yet their heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not worth much more than they?
And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?"
Matthew 6: 26,27

"... I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."
Jesus,
John 10:10b

"Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882)