In Appreciation

The other morning, as I was running around preparing for another day, something caught my attention out the window. The sky was a mixture of the most amazing colors! (I wish a picture could do it justice.) Hues of orange, pink, purple, blue and yellow met my eyes and caused me to stop in my tracks! It literally took my breath away! It held my gaze for about 5 seconds and then I had the thought, “I have to tell everyone!” I told my daughter. I ran to Phil who was still in bed and pulled up the blinds on the window and said “you have to see this!” His response was, “WOW!” I immediately got on a group text message with my mom and sisters to tell them they needed to look at the sunrise (I did it yesterday too by the way). My little sister had beat me to it. She told us it was so beautiful it brought her to tears. Another sister told us her 5 year old daughter came in and woke her up to tell her she needed to see the sunset. Haha. Needless to say my family has a real appreciation for sunrises and sunsets. Our mom instilled that in us. For as long as I can remember that’s been the case. There were mornings growing up that she would wake us up early for the sole purpose of wanting to share the beauty of the sunrise with us.

The same with sunsets. We live out in the country and the sunsets are spectacular! There have been many summer nights that we’ve sat around in the yard after a long day, talking and watching in awe as the colors explode across the sky. The words we usually say are something like, “Isn’t God amazing?”, “Thank you Lord for the beautiful gift of this sunset!”, “He (God) is quite the artist”. I love those moments.

This morning got me thinking though when I said in our group text, “Mom gave us all an appreciation for sunrises and sunsets”. All of the sudden it wasn’t literal sunrises and sunsets on my mind, but figurative ones. The sun is setting on their life, or job, or relationship or season. Do we take the time to stop and appreciate the sunsets of those things or do we hurry along to the next sunrise without enjoying the beauty of the sunset? 

We often give greater importance to the sunrises in life. New babies, new jobs, new relationships, new friends. We are a culture enamored with the new. Those sunrises are definitely deserving of the adoration and excitement! They are beautiful in so many ways. They keep life fresh and alive and bring joy to living! These things are absolutely gifts from God and we should stop and take the time to appreciate the beauty of them! But what if we only appreciated the beginning of things? How sad it would be to miss the sunsets of life!

We are usually good about appreciating the sunset of someone’s life itself. We have beautiful funerals and memorials for those we love when they pass away. But did we stop to appreciate the stages of the sunset? It’s amazing how quickly the sunsets change in the evening sky. The colors change in literal seconds and you can be greeted with a whole different view. Here are some examples. My parents are getting older. We’ve been spending a lot of time with them lately and I’ve begun to see some glimpses of the sunset. Hopefully we have many years left with them, but they aren’t as young as they used to be. I don’t like seeing this sunset, but I do want to cherish the beautiful moments that are coming. 

Recently Phil changed jobs. The sun has set on his former employment. While we are thankful the time at that job has come to an end, we have reflected on the importance that job had in our lives for so long and the many lessons we had learned along the way. 

We’ve had the sun set on relationships that we thought would last longer. While those endings weren’t as beautiful as a sunset, we can see how the Lord has used those things to make something beautiful. 

So what does this have to do with naturism? Maybe nothing. I think it has more to do with our faith as Christians first, but maybe then as naturists. 

My reaction when I saw the sunrise was awe and then an urgency to tell those I love. “You have to see this!” As believers do we have that sense of urgency to share with others the ways the Lord is working in our lives? When a prayer is answered, do we feel the need to run and tell people, “look what God did!” or do we utter a quiet thank you under our breath and move about our day. Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with that. I think the Lord appreciates every act of gratefulness. How will the world know how beautiful our Lord is though unless we tell them about it? We don’t even have to wait for an answered prayer, the miracle of Jesus is enough to want to tell everyone!

This week I told my sister about us. It went about how I expected but I definitely left second guessing if I should have told her. The next morning I realized why it felt weird to me. I realized the reason I wanted to tell her wasn’t because I wanted her to know about the naturism itself, but because I wanted to share with her the awesome things God has been doing in my heart and life and one of the biggest tools he’s used is naturism. I couldn’t fully explain what he’s done without sharing about naturism with her.  I wanted to share with her how good God is, not how good naturism is. Although that is true. I’m not sure that came off to her as clearly as I hoped. I’m trusting the Lord to do his work with the information I shared. 

What can God use to show himself to us? I think a better question might be, what can’t he use to show himself to us? I never expected that the Lord would use naturism to show me his beauty! I didn’t even know what it was! Like I’ve said before though, naturism was just the start of the things the Lord used and continues to use to show me his beauty and the beauty of a relationship with his son. Yes, I’m going there, the Lord used the beauty of the sun and my thankfulness for it to remind me of my thankfulness for the beauty of his son and all of the unexpected ways he uses to reach our hearts and draw us closer to him. For that I am very grateful!