Pause

Tonight I got off work early and was driving home during sunset. The sky was BEAUTIFUL!

I wish I had had a camera with me (besides my cell phone). I took one picture with the cell phone at a red light, but alas, I cannot ever get the stinkin' pictures off my cell phone. I have an old-school phone that is part of a family plan with my in-laws for which we are supposed to be paying them $10 a month or something. We are cheapskates. And come to think of it we probably owe my in-laws about $500 by now for our phone use over the last several years.

Seriously, I cannot fathom paying $80 or $100 a month for one cell phone. $1200 in a year! Or maybe people pay even more than that!

Yep. We're cheapskates.

Or maybe we just spend our money on other things we deem more important.

Anyway, the sunset was putting on a show all over the whole sky tonight. The sun itself was a blaring red orb low to the horizon painting the big, fluffy cumulus clouds across the sky pink and orange and making the sky glow a pale, but brilliantly clear, blue. The fluffy clouds right around the sun were dark, but outlined in fiery light.

I desperately wanted to pull over on the overpass section of the highway to stare and take pictures. (Until I remembered I only had the silly cell phone camera with me. Oh, and probably more importantly, I figured pulling over on the overpass would be a near death sentence. And all the traffic noise would be deafening. That and the stench of diesel would slightly ruin the show in the sky.)

By the time I got home the sun had set and everything was more of a muted pink and gray.

But I sure enjoyed the ride home. After a very busy day if was relieving to see some beauty.

It's all a wonderful reminder that there are many layers of life going on at the same time. I can spend a lot of time focusing on the painful, disappointing parts. Or the mundane, boring parts. But there are also beautiful, peaceful, joyful layers that I might tend to ignore amidst the chaos and busyness and hurt. God knows we need that calm and beauty or we'd go crazy. I'm still learning how to harness that peace and beauty, to focus on it a little more while trudging through the pain and disappointment.

And I have the wonderful hope that one day, when this world is through, all the layers of life will be shows in the sky for those who know and trust the Creator of all that beauty!

I saw Heaven and earth new-created...I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God. He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone." The Enthroned continued, "Look! I'm making everything new."
~Revelation 21:1-5