It’s a hot, sticky, New-Jersey-summer-kind-of-night. Tonight as I’m walking by the High School I catch a glimpse of the evening sky just after the sun has set. I notice that the sky is painted in glorious streaks of color, in hues of majestic blue and fiery orange, and resting on the horizon is a piercing streak of bright yellow sunlight! I want a little piece of that piercing yellow streak! I want to take it home with me and keep it where I can always have it to enjoy. Well, I guess a photo will have to do. Good thing cell phones have cameras these days. I try to position my cell phone to catch the piercing yellow streak, but— there’s a tree in the way! I position the lens slightly to the left— no, there’s a car in the way! I move a step to the right— no, there’s a telephone pole in the way! I think to myself, perhaps if I walk beyond the High School, there’ll be a better view of the sunset over the football field. But no— a building, a car, a telephone pole, a wire fence… There is just no way to catch the sunset in all of its glory. And then it’s too late. The piercing yellow streak of sunlight has drifted below the horizon. No longer in view. It’s gone. There’s a parable there somewhere, I think to myself, if only I could find it. We catch a sliver of beauty, a little glimpse of joy, a moment of truth where we see through a person’s eyes and into their soul, and then the moment is gone. The moment is important. Enjoy the moment. Live the moment. The moment is all that we have. It is enough. Well, I think to myself, perhaps the streak of yellow sunlight wasn’t mine to capture and share with the world. Maybe it was there just for me— a little packet of joy from God’s heart to mine, wrapped up in a piercing yellow streak of sunlight resting on the horizon. I was there at the right place at the right time, my eyes were open, and I saw it. My evening walk had intersected with the sunset at just the right moment. Sort of like an eclipse, I guess. My moment of eclipse with the bright yellow streak of sunlight has been orchestrated by the unseen hand of God. God is good. I start to think about skies that are not so fair and places where the universe might not appear quite so friendly at the moment. I think of those who are suffering tonight, some without power, some maybe buried under piles of rubble, in the aftermath of horrible destruction, and I whisper a silent prayer for them. I think of a devastating storm with the unlikely name of “Harvey”. I think of two unspeakably treacherous earthquakes in Mexico. I think of North Korea and the U.S. talking about doing the Truly Unthinkable to each other. I think of a hurricane called “Josè” followed by another hurricane called “Maria”. Such saintly names for such destructive storms. After “Josè” and “Maria” shouldn’t there be a “Jesùs”? Maybe that’s the message in the skies. Maybe Jesùs is coming next… Now the majestic blue is turning into a deeper royal blue, the fiery red is starting to look less like a fire and more like a ruby, and the piercing yellow streak is long gone. Still a truly beautiful sky, though. I wonder if those stuck under the rubble can look up and see the glorious sky and find a ray of hope… The mosquitos are starting to bite. It’s time to go home. God still rules His universe, and the earth is still His footstool. There will be another sunset tomorrow. All is well.
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