Day 31 - Faith to keep the shades off.

I'm a freak when it comes to nature. I spent a 20 minute drive home tonight simply analyzing the different colors of the clouds. It's amazing I didn't drive off into a ditch - but it would have been an exceptional way to go. The varieties of pinks, blues, greys, whites, purples, all simply resplendent with the golden sun setting behind the horizon... it makes you catch your breath.

I visited Little One this evening and I probably drove her nuts, stopping her at every different vantage point asking "Look at those clouds! do you see that one?"

God is simply the most amazing, breath-stealing artist of all times. Never a masterpiece the same, hour after hour always changing. Simply beautiful.

And that's why I hate sunglasses. I have weary eye syndrome. Or at least that's what I call it. Often while I'm driving at the slightest hint of bright light my eyes begin watering like fountains. It's one of the few times you'll actually see me wearing sunglasses in the "on" position. But even tonight, as I covered my eyes for few minutes I glared unhappily at the glaze it put on my beautiful world. I tried my best to see the beauty and the colors still, but all I saw was muted greys and darkened clouds.

I finally took them off, just hoping my traitorous eyes would simply ignore whatever it is that the glorious sun seems to do to them.

The sights imprinted on my memory still make me smile even now.

A more constant annoyance are windows. I can't get around them. The few times I've tried I usually end up at my destination looking like something the cat dragged in after scrounging in tornado rubble. Windblown, tangled and strangely dry and warped looking. It's certainly a sight to behold. One I'm sure you'd be willing to wear your sunglasses for. :)

But windows are one more thing that put even the slightest glaze on my world. I love to see the world from the outside, purely, not a thing between it and me and seeing as clearly and as perfectly as these human eyes can. I do whatever I can, as often as I can, to do just that.

What's all this have to do with anything?

Well, my pastor said something recently that caught my attention. I don't know if he was really thinking all the way along these lines or if the emphasis he put on the words simply put the idea into my head but he mentioned how Jesus knew when God turned away from Him on the cross. And Jesus cried out "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?"

And I realized something, Jesus had such a pure and clear relationship with the Father that in the moment that God turned His back Jesus knew it. How long does it take you to realize you've wandered off the path? Longer than a moment I bet.

But also, the film that separated Father and Son was a simple and vile thing called sin.

Sins are the sunglasses to my relationship with God.

One minute you're viewing something lovely and grand, then along comes sin to put that film between you and your Beloved and that view is no longer the same. Instantly transformed into something less beautiful, less noble, less glorious and awe-inspiring. It taints your view.

So many times I think we close our eyes and reopen them with this new view, this tainted dimmed view of God that we don't even quite realize we've lost some of the grandeur of it. And slowly more and more sin creeps in darkening and staining our life changing picture of God and Christ until it becomes something far more dreadful than ugly or detestable.
It becomes uninspiring, mundane, average.

Jesus knew the minute that this film stood between He and His Father. And it's my prayer today, that I can faithfully and diligently seek my awe-inspiring Father to keep my vision cleared from this taint. I never see Him as anything but grand and glorious.

......As a small side note though, much like keeping my sunglasses off puts pressure on my eyes, so does keeping that sinful taint out of your life. I know that the view without those pesky shades is a lifetime better than the view with them. So regardless of what it might be costing my eyes, whenever I possibly can, I don't wear them. Sometimes I do end up with burning, watering eyes - but the shades that protect my eyes allow me to neglect the part of me that simply basks in the beauty and glory of the world God's created.

But the sins that keep your ministry going long after God's timing, the sins that keep your ego protected, the sins that keep your marriage "protected", the sins that keep you protected from being scorned by your family and friends, those sins blind you to the glory of God. From the perfectly clear presence of God that you could become so in tune with that the moment He turns His face from you - you know.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace