Throughout my life, I have been a person who has spent time in and enjoyed the outdoors. As a boy I was involved in Scouts (yes, I’m an Eagle Scout), and in my young adult years into now “later adult” years, I have experienced and explored the outdoors. I’ve been on mountaintops watching the sunrise, and seen sunsets from lofty peaks as well. I’ve separated myself from campfires to be able to look up and see the Milky Way. I’ve stood on shorelines watching waterspouts and observed lightning illuminate a darkened sky.
I remember being stopped in my tracks one night, as I turned back toward our house in Mississippi after taking out the trash, to see a spiderweb of lightning works its way horizontally across the sky. I stood in our driveway, my mouth hanging open, until I managed to say (pray?), “You are SO COOL.”
Sadly, I think that too often we take the beauty of the natural world for granted. Sure, when we get that occasional snow and the world is blanketed in white, we think of its beauty. But have you stopped to consider the Artist behind that beauty? Do you realize that the Lord chooses each day to paint a glorious sunrise, and sketches breathtaking sunsets to help us see how truly glorious his work is?
The pastor of the church in which I grew up once spoke to me about walking in a gentle snowfall as he made his way through a cotton field hunting rabbits. He said it was one of the most spiritual moments of his life.
C’mon; slow down. Get up in time to watch the sun break the horizon. Turn off the TV, or step away from electronics and watch the sun ease its way down, and marvel at God’s handiwork.