Living Colour

In Joni Mitchell’s 1969 hit song Both Sides Now, she describes how there is never really only one thing going on in the story of life, what we see, and what others see. She describes one way of looking at clouds:

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I’ve looked at clouds that way.

Clouds can look this way, however at sunset they look quite different as the sun reflects light off them. The transformation while short lived, is nothing short of miraculous. Then the clouds go back to be grey. I often wonder during the magnificent process of a sunset if there is something else going on that is unseen, yet experienced. I think I’ve looked at clouds this way, however there are other clues that we see every day.

Reminders of the greater story are everywhere—in film and novels, in children’s fairy tales, in the natural world around us, and in the stories of our own lives. In fact, every story or movie or song or poem that has ever stirred your soul is telling you something you need to know about the world that God created. Even nature is crying out to us of God’s great heart and the drama that is unfolding. Sunrise and sunset tell the tale every day, remembering the Garden of Eden’s glory, and predicting Eden’s return.

Perhaps sunsets are the trumpet calls from the “hid battlements of eternity.” Our response is to notice and capture them like precious treasures, and hold them close to our hearts and perhaps even been transformed if only for the length on a sunset.

Living Colour

I bask in the warmth
Of the sunset at the end of the day
As you transform the clouds
Yellow to gold, and red to crimson

The colours deepen
While gaining significance
That attract the attention
Of us heaven gazers

We feel the work of sunset
On our faces yet never realise
Your mastery as you colour us
With the same brush strokes

The sunset works on us and paints
Our hearts with deep colours
That are yet to be named
As they settle within our soul

Help us to gaze into
The mirror of the sunset
As we fix our eyes on you
So we can become living colour

May you notice the sunset, and experience all it has to offer. May you feel the warmth as you face the sun, and may you shadows fall far behind you.

Grace and peace.