[Image: Golden Sunset, 2013, JA Van Devender]
Psalm 50:1–2 (NKJV)
1 The Mighty One, God the Lord, Has spoken and called the earth, From the rising of the sun to its going down.
2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth.
Without all my processing tools, photos I post from this trip will be only minimally processed, but at least you can get a flavor of the things I am seeing. This one, taken just north of El Paso, is kind of 'noisy' but I think it will be a "keeper" once I turn PhotoShop loose on it. It's pretty much as I saw it.
We tend to forget just how big and how blessed we are in this country. It is a humbling experience to stand under bright skies and peer across miles of unhindered desert flatness at the distant horizon. And I think it ought to stay that way more than it is. We parents are often engaged in a seemingly never ending task putting pressure on our kids to keep their room(s) neat and uncluttered. Why do we not take the same attitude toward this marvellous "room" God has given us to inhabit during our short stay in this life? Why must every spare inch be covered in asphalt or every majestic sky line ruined with dismally engineered infrastructure?
Some bridges I have seen and a few buildings here and there actually add to the aesthetic appeal of the natural surroundings. But far too much does not and as the size of our population doubles and doubles again in ever increasing frequency, the sheer multitude of abusers is rapidly stripping away those remaining vistas that cannot be replaced without catastrophe.
I don't think God is pleased with that prospect.
Psalm 50 is a sobering reminder that God has not surrendered His sovereign ownership of this world... in its entirety. Verse 12 states it clearly: "For the world is mine, and all its fullness." The context is referring to His independence of man... God does not "need" anything from us. But the foundation of His statement is the simple truth, that we are living in God's House... one that He furnished for us to inhabit, true... but it is still His house. We are, in so many words, renters, or better yet, "share-croppers." (Look it up, all you city slickers.)
And God keeps sending us reminders of His ownership. The brilliance of a setting sun reminds of the extent of His Word flashing into the darkness and coloring it with layers of burnished light. He has proclaimed Himself from the dawn to the dusk, from beginning to end, throughout the entire "day" of man's sojourn through time. We are called to look up and be glad that God's artistry is displayed. But we are also to remember that we have a role to play in God's speaking. Someone must interpret the sunsets. Someone must point to the heavens and say... Look and see... there is a God in heaven and He is vitally concerned with what we do with the lives He has given us AND the world He has provided.
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