As Far as East to West
We tend to think small. That makes it easier to keep everything in
its place so we can make sense of things.
The sky is up; the earth is down.
Summer is hot; winter is cold. Of
course, we experience little realities all the time that challenge our mental
organization of our big reality. I can
recall a two-and-a-half-hour ascent of North Schell Peak in Nevada to get to
the aspen grove I wanted to bow hunt.
The earth didn’t seem “down” that morning. And, I also recall mid-July days of camping
in my youth where we pulled on sweatshirts and stayed near the campfire for
warmth. Summer weather isn’t always hot.
One of these little experiences this week challenged
the clear and certain reality that the sun rises only in the east and sets only
in the west. The day started off sunny
but clouded up in the afternoon. But
just at sunset, when the sun teetered on the western horizon, the clouds split
open enough to allow the last of the sun to light up the sky – first in bright
orange (fitting for the pumpkin time of year), then it turned magenta and
finally soft pink before the sun did finally sink into the horizon.
But the most amazing thing was because of the extreme angle
of the sun in that last light, it actually lit up the underside of the clouds
all the way across the sky so that the colors were visible looking east as well
as west. Last year when Michelle and I
were in Door County celebrating our anniversary we encountered a similar and
even more spectacular sunset. Not only
did the sunset span the entire sky, but it lit up all of Egg Harbor as well. The mirrored reflection magnified the
spectacle.
God thinks big.
We think of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as the Holy Family, and rightly
so. But Jesus said that we are all part
of the family, when we seek and do the will of the Father. The Holy Family, from God’s perspective, is
intended to be everyone. And so, he
sends us little signs like a sunset that lights up not just the west but the
whole sky, that invite us to think bigger, to dream dreams, and even to
prophesy. And it is so like God to use a
sunset to send such a message. A sunset
is silent. It can be overlooked. It can be ignored. But, to those who take heed, those who take
the time to pause, to look, to wonder – it is an invitation to powerful
prayer.
“As the heavens
tower over all the earth, so God’s love towers over the faithful. As far as the east is from the west, so far
have our sins been removed from us.” (Psalm
103:11-12)
His Peace <><
Deacon Dan
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
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