Today I saw the glory of God as it rose above the mountains into a glorious audience of settled fog.
Wow. Absolutely breathtaking.
And I got to see it. How many sun rises do I miss because I’m cozy in bed?
This isn’t a shame message- sleep is good and we don’t honor our need for it enough!
But, man! Sometimes I wish I could be awake all the time and not need sleep, partially so I don’t keep missing amazingness like this. Imagine what we would experience if awake all 24 hours, never ever needing sleep…
Then again, knowing our economic system too well…we would all just be working 15 hour days or perhaps we would split each 24 chunk into two and then get a short break between each 8 hour shift…
I realize that my desire to not sleep reeks both of pride and FOMO – fear of missing out.
God knows what we need and gave us directives to keep us healthy…like having bodies that need to shut down every evening and the importance of taking an entire day for a sabbath rest.
Not my invention- His.
And so even though all this beauty is happening around me, my eyes and consciousness are completed unaware of it…yet that is what He would deem right.
It doesn’t slight Him for me to not observe the sun rise every day. Or to miss the glory of our night’s glorious heavens with a sky flooded with stars in sparking wonder…
That’s crazy, cuz if I had created all that beauty, I would sure as heck want people to stop and notice. To forego a night of sleep. To whip out their cameras to attempt to capture something so magnificence. To gasp in amazement and be star-struck (perhaps almost literally?).
But our God is not like us. Nope.
Funny (or sad?) how I have to continually remind myself of this fact.
I tend to assume if I want it, then surely He’d want it too. Sigh.
He’s such a generous Creator that He paints the sky with diamonds and brilliant colors, and He covers the landscape with amazing creatures of every shape, size and color…even though there may be no one to appreciate it, no one to give it and Him the honor due.
As I write this I’m snuggled cozily into my blue mummy sleeping bag leaning against a camping pillow in the back seat of my car. Over the mountains the sun is starting to warm the earth to my right and opposite that is the roaring of the ocean, as wave after wave pounds the shoreline.
Who wouldn’t want a hotel this grand?
Cost: a bit of tossing and turning to get comfortable, a leg initially falling asleep due to being cramped, use of an outdoor latrine comproised of coastal shrubs, and…the expenditure of a grand total of zero US dollars.
Amenities: room with a view; coastal access within a quarter mile hike; complimentary breakfast in bed; quiet hours strictly enforced; no noisy neighbors or maids bothering you; very eco-friendly.
After about an hour of failing to keep warm under two blankets, I grumpily stumble onto the pavement and struggle to pull out my sleeping bag from the trunk. The warmth provided was almost instantaneous and allowed me to sleep well!
A few hours later, I awake groggily with a desperate need to pee. Oh dear.
Turned out to be the hugest blessing, because in the stillness of an empty highway, a roaring ocean and the black dark of night…I lift my eyes and see the most amazing star-studded sky of my life. I’ve never been this far north -ever- so I see many constellations clearly for perhaps the first time.
I stand in awe and whisper gratitude to the Maker of the stars.
This is why I travel. This is why I go camping. This is why I like to get away from the noise and stuff and all the people.
So I have room for this. So I step out to have the chance to see things like this. To experience moments of wonder, to be reminded of my insignificance.
Since moving to San Francisco, I’ve realized that the beauty alone isn’t enough.
There I’m surrounded by mountains, beach, ocean, trails…yet it is in the stillness, the quiet, the space alone without others, the stopping of a busy schedule and a turning of the heart to see the Creator who made it all- then the beauty comes to fulfillment. Doing what it was meant all along to do.
What shocks and saddens my heart is that we can see all this glory and still not credit it and our very lives to the the One who made it all.
I want to be one who sees nature and stops to think on and thank my Creator, without whom none of this would exist, and from whom I receive the ability to enjoy, love, write and even – exist.
Aggie Dancing in the Rain 