6-19-12
Right now,
I’m staring at the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I’m 40,000 feet above the ground, and
it’s 7:48 PM. I’m on a flight from
Miami to Washington D.C., coming home from the two-week Nicaragua trip.
It’s a sunset. Rays of light fill my eyes and blast
the sky and the Atlantic Ocean below with golden light. There is no land in sight, only water
and sky. Puffy clouds of all
shapes and sizes dot the scene far below, lit on fire by yellow beams. The ocean miles beneath me is laughing
joyfully painted with the sun’s reflection. Shadows are cast across the canvas by the sun exploding over
the clouds...
...I’m staring
into that blinding light right now, while what I should be looking at is utter,
crippling darkness. “The
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus
our Lord.”
What I’m
talking about here is grace. I did
not choose God, I chose me. I
chose my way, so that I may have fleeting pleasures that have no worth.
But God
chose me.
He looked at
me and didn’t find something about me that was better than other people. I was no more righteous than any other
man, because we are not righteous in ourselves. God bestowed righteousness upon me, though he found no merit
or love for him. God ripped me from
the grasp of Satan and said to me that He is so much better, so much brighter
than anything I could ever comprehend.
And he was
so, so, so right.
My dreams
can’t rival this. My deepest
thoughts cannot create anything as incredible as the scene that’s bestowed up
me.
I’m
wondering right now: If this broken, fallen world can have this much of God’s
beauty in it, what will the New Earth be like? An Earth purged of selfishness, of corruption, of pain? I’ll definitely need a new body in
order to stand before that because I’m pretty sure the one I’m in now would
explode if I saw anything more beautiful than what I’m already looking at.
All I know
is this: Trouble will come. I will
cry, I will hurt, I will break.
But the Lord of the sky will always, ALWAYS be by my side. He will always be amazing me beyond the
boundaries I try to put Him in.
I just can’t
believe the Lord of the sunset loves ME.
I mean, of course I believe it, but it’s just so….so unfair. Fair equals me never seeing a
sunset. But “the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair.” I
am so, so thankful for that.