A few nights ago, I was doing work on my computer, as we had some thunderstorms pass through the area. I had the blinds up so that I could see out the windows. I was pretty heavily involved in a project, and I didn’t even notice when the rain subsided an hour or so before sunset. A little bit after 9:00pm, I hit “send” on the project I had been working on, leaned back, and looked out the window.
What was before my eyes was the most beautiful array of sunset colors that I had ever seen. Looking through the many tall trees in our neighborhood, I could see a backdrop of a changing sky, as I scanned across the horizon from left to right.
The brilliance and beauty drew me outside instantly, as I simply grabbed my coffee cup, and started walking across the street, leaving my front door wide open. As I moved beyond the first tree line, I began to gain a better view of this awesome display of God’s creation. I stopped to film a video of it on my phone for a few seconds. I could see, however, that the colors on the video did not even come close to capturing what God’s portrait had shown me to my naked eyes. The various shades of orange, yellow, lavender, and many more, were simply amazing, but didn’t show up on the video.
As I walked back home, I realized that God’s natural picture that I viewed with my naked eye was far superior to what I could record and capture on video. That is consistent with the nature of God and the nature of man.
God’s plan for us is wonderful to the “naked eye.” We simply need to seek it and follow it, without any outside interference. God’s way for us to “do life” is more amazing, more brilliant, more breathtaking, more vibrant, and more colorful than our own way of doing life without Him.
When we try to run our lives without God, we cannot experience all that he meant for us to experience.
Through the video screen on my phone, I could not experience the sunset the way I was meant to experience it. Running our life without God is like me trying to capture that amazing sunset on video; it’s just not the same. Sure, we can substitute a temporary good time or good feeling on our own; but ultimately that temporary happiness does not lead to the same vibrant joy that the real thing does. I could have captured more of the beauty of the sunset with better equipment; but it still is not the same as the real thing.
The real thing is God’s plan for you. Seek it; pray for it. Look out the window of your life to the vibrant, beautiful plan God has in store for you. Then, allow yourself to be drawn to it, coffee cup and all!
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
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Photo credit: Scott Carney