Sunrise, Sunset

I'm extremely blessed to live across the street from waterfront properties in my neighborhood.  I'm doubly blessed to have wonderful neighbors who have told my wife and I to come over any time and sit on their adirondack chairs overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  I took them up on that offer last night and was treated to the kaleidoscope of changing colors in the sky including this picture.

After sitting in solitude for a few minutes, my neighbor came out with a couple glasses of wine and we enjoyed the beauty in front of us together.

He asked me, "What does this bring to mind of God for you?"  Interestingly I had been thinking about that already.  For as I sat and watched the sunset I thought back 24 hours to a comment a friend had made to me.  She said how amazed she is that God paints the sunset for us every night.  I understood how she felt, but my internal thought was, "That's a beautiful sentiment, but I have to disagree."

Does God actually go around our world arranging cloud patterns and wind patterns to specifically "paint" the sunset viewed by billions of people from every vantage point on the globe, every morning and every evening?  This seems implausible in light of the billions of stars and planets in our little galaxy among the billions of galaxies.

But as I sat and looked at the sunset I was still filled with wonder and awe and gratefulness toward the Creator.  The process of creation set into motion billions of years ago by the Creator led to that sunset. In God's infinite wisdom, the elements of creation burst forth and the laws of nature God put into motion developed this planet, so beautifully situated a perfect distance from our sun, and the perfect tilt to rotate through 4 seasons and sustain life.  Our atmosphere is amazing and beyond the scope of any human power to create.  We can understand it more and more with technological advances, but it all exists because of the amazing creativity and wisdom of the One and Only.

So, no, I don't believe "God put that sunset there just for me."  No, I don't pray for God to affect weather patterns for my birthday party, or for my vacation plans.  But I do give thanks to God for creating a world filled with such beauty, and for an amazingly complex, wonderful body with which I can see, smell, hear, touch, and think about such things.  Soli Deo gloria.  To God alone be the glory.

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