Consider the Heavens

One of my favorite pastimes (when I am home) is to sit in my backyard and watch the sun set. Because I live out in the country, there are fields as far as the eye can see that stretch out behind my house, meeting with a vast expanse of sky. I get the greatest pleasure just staring at the sky. Last night I watched the sun set, journal in hand, and stretched out on my driveway.

8:20 PM

Sitting on the driveway again to catch the last traces of sunlight. The sky is clear except for a few wispy clouds with traces of golden orange and pink around the edges. I love looking at the sky -- it's God's canvas on which He paints shadows and traces of His own beauty. As the sun sets deeper into the horizon, the outlines of the clouds blaze with striking color. Rays of pink shoot from behind the clouds that hug the horizon.

Watching the sun set reminded me of Psalm 8:3-4 --

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?

The sky is one of the most amazing (if not the most amazing) things God has ever created. It baffles me just to lay outside and stare at the heavens. Just think what Isaiah 34:4 will be like!

All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.