The Setting Sun

I see the sun setting all the time, driving home from school or some other function, going out to run a quick errand, and normally all I do is glance at it, think, "Wow, that's pretty," and then move on with whatever I was going to do or return to daydreaming. However, I don't remember the last time I just decided to go outside and watch the sunset. (Maybe I never truly have.) So, I chose to go outside and sit on my back porch just as the sky was starting to move from blue to a sort of yellow near the line of roofs and trees. I sat in the only lawn chair on my back porch with a remaining cushion that the squirrels hadn't destroyed yet and watched. I watched as the colors in the sky began to change. I couldn't directly see the sun from my backyard, but I knew what was occurring just out of my view because of the ever changing colors. I watched as the sky went from predominantly blue to predominately golden. The portion of the sky that seemed to rest on the roof tops held the most color, golden, orange, red, a soft, yet dark purple. Soon after though, the inky black sky of night began to overtake all of the beautiful colors and very quickly then began to make way for a different, but equally beautiful night sky, gleaming with stars.

As the purple, red, and orange began to disappear, the inky black night sky began to show itself and I was sad for a moment, until I remembered that the sun would set again tomorrow. It would set the next night even if it was raining. It would continue to set over and over again, giving me a different, beautiful picture to watch every single night if I chose to. As I headed inside, I wondered why I chose to stare at a rerun of some man-made crime drama far more than I chose to watch the beautiful, unique motion picture that was right out my backdoor every night. When I watched the sunset, I remember thinking about a day in Bible class fairly recently when Mr. Lyman got into one of his story telling modes. He told a story about a friend of his taking his new wife up to see a beautiful clearing on a mountain in New Hampshire. The wife didn't originally want to go, but when she finally got there and saw the changing of the fall leaves and the stunning view, she became so excited by all the God-placed beauty around her. I didn't exactly run around my yard screaming with joy at the beauty of the sunset. I smiled at it and stared in wonder about how I'd managed to miss this most nights. I felt bad for missing it in favor of crime dramas or Matthew McConaughey movies.

There's always something incredibly stunning and natural for humans anywhere in the world to stare at in wonder, but instead we choose man-made, mechanical creations. It took a sunset for me to see this, but, honestly, the stars, a walk through the woods in the fall, or a hike through the mountains would work just as well. God made beautiful things for us to enjoy and we, as humans all across the globe, are so good at turning our noses up at it and going back inside, which, in all honesty, is just a shame.