Got to watch an entire sunset, from start to finish? I mean...not from 6am to 8pm, but from about the time the sky starts to turn into brilliant shades of red and orange to the time when the moon begins to take its place as the prominent light in the sky.
Today, I did.
It was a rare occasion but I happen to be driving home from set-up at Move in Bolivar, MO, and the drive is about 1 hr and 45 minutes...just long enough to watch the sun set.
First of all, let me say that my sunset experience was not completely unadulterated, I was heavily under the influence of Hillsong United's "Across The Earth". The sun began its descent behind the clouds during their song "You Hold Me Now" here were the lyrics I was screaming along to on my drive as the sun came crashing into the horizon:
Where the wars and violence cease,
Where creation lives in peace,
Let the songs of Heaven rise to you alone
No weeping,
No hurting,
No suffering,
You hold me now, you hold me now.
No darkness,
No sick or lame,
No Hiding!
You hold me now! You hold me now!
(cue air guitar)
Besides the desire to fall flat on my face, overwhelmed by the glimpse of God's glory he allowed me to see on my drive home, two things came to mind.
1. We sing a song called "How He Loves" in which John Mark McMillan writes, "Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss, and my heart turns violently inside my chest", and I couldn't help but gasp at the amazing visual analogy of the sun crashing into the horizon, and heaven crashing into earth. To think that I could never put words to the amount of brilliance and color the sunset produced, and to compare this to how beautiful it is when the Church invites Heaven to invade, or crash into, earth, and God's will to reign among us is something only God could show us. I literally can't even find a good way to flow these two sentences together. Today, during church, Jeremy (drums) and I were discussing how beautiful John Mark's lyrics are in that line, and how sad it was that Crowder would alter them. In Rob Bell's book "Sex God", Rob describes how Jewish scholars believed Heaven and Hell to be realms just outside of our own, and Heaven is where things are as God intended them to be, and Hell is where things are apart from what God intended them to be. That at any time, we could invite Heaven and Hell to earth by our actions, and it seemed to be happening right before me eyes!
2. I cried...no...I bawled. I'm not a crying person...ask my wife, but I couldn't look at this picture God had put on display just for me, and hold my composure. I probably freaked out the drivers around me, I was crying, and shouting the words, and flailing my arms like Jeremy when he goes penta-sayin.
I took two pictures, with my phone, and the fact that I'm no photographer, combined with a 2.0 megapixel camera phone at 70 mph did absolutely no justice to the sunset, but as you look at this, remember these words from John chapter 1.
"The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it."
"The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world."
"No one has ever seen God. But the unique one, who is himself God, is near to the Father's heart. He has revealed God to us."
Just as I, by no means can describe the beauty of Heaven on earth...I can't even describe the beauty of a sunset, the sky, in all of its glory, cannot begin to depict the true light that Jesus brought into our world.
2 comments:
This was beautiful. i know i LOVE to watch the sun set and rise. in fact ive painted many paintings of such.
i was dropping by to see how your band is and get some knowledge, you will be the band at my conference this year in manhattan, so i thought i would get a little know-how of who you are =D. my last year to enjoy an amazing conference and i want to get as much out of it as i can. God Bless and see you in november =D
mikey! wow! i mean, absolutely! i'm speechless. the way you describe the sunset completely belittles me. it seems so usual, but when you put it this way...wow.
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