Lessons of the Land

I have learned a few things from the land, not everything, but a few things, enough that just looking at this picture taken during a moment's reprieve from Fall tillage while overlooking the pasture and creek just to the South at sunset, causes me to mull over a couple of those things:

• If you are so busy making a living you don't have time to occasionally enjoy a beautiful sunrise or sunset, you need to stop what you are doing and start making a life which savors such gifts.
• No one knows when the sunset we observe becomes the sunset of which we are a part. Watch how beautifully and majestically creation does it, then try to do the same each day on your journey.
• The most beautiful of sunrises and sunsets often includes a variety of clouds which reflect both light and color, so why are we surprised when clouds come into our lives? Perhaps they are the necessary precursors of memorable new beginnings just waiting to happen.
• From where I am in life, crossing the creek in a picture is far easier and safer than crossing it on foot. Yet, if I have never crossed a creek on foot, how would I know where the catfish swim? Or the crawdads stay? Or where rabbits nest?
• The trees along the banks of the creek serve to hold the banks in their places. We all need roots to hold us and, sometimes, those roots are the presence of others: Their gift to our stability.
• What sometimes seems a barren scene, once was a vision of vibrancy. Do not overlook the stark as unattractive or unimportant, for in overlooking the present state you may well miss, both what was and what is to come in their existence.
• Have you ever considered that, whether at sunrise or sunset, the light of the sun seems to stretch upwards into the sky? At dawn the sun stretches into the space of our living and at sunset the sun pulls the upward stretching rays downward into the space of others around the world. Light has that capacity, to reach into our darkness and remind us that we are not alone.
• The place where field meets pasture may seem inconsequential to some, but it is a thing of beauty to others. There, where fescue tufts nuzzle fence posts under runs of electric or barbed wire, is the place of quail habitat and rabbit dens, where field mice scurry and blacksnakes slither, where ground bees dig and ants build their homes. There, where pastoral scene meets cultivation's tools, two different worlds exist, side by side, for the benefit of each other. Unity is served, not by one overcoming the other, but by both preserving the other. 
• Sometimes the prettiest part of a sunset is, quite simply, the time taken to enjoy it.
• Time taken to watch a sunset are moments spent preparing for sunrise, neither of which are ours to claim, but both of which will happen regardless our presence, so delight in the ones of which you are a part and hope for those which are yet to be.
• When the sun's last rays ebb below the horizon and light's final rays begin their work of dawning another day elsewhere in the global village, pause to give thanks to God for the day of which you are a part. There will never be another like it, nor another you like you. 
• Today is exactly what it was meant to be, regardless the whims of the rest of the world, if only you allow the Spirit to guide you and the love of Christ to hold you. 
• Should difficulty, grief or pain darken your journey or make unbearable your living, should your sunsets or sunrises prove impossible to behold even with the most searching of eyes, look to the Son who never sets, but Rises to bring you Home. He is always here. He will always be true. He walks with you, from field to pasture to creek and beyond. He will guide you to the blessing you are and grant you Peace.
• It is amazing what one can learn from from the sunset truly observed.

Just a few things I have learned from the land which I share with you this night. With today's sunset nearing, I pray you have . . . 

Something to ponder on the journey.

(c)dcw2020

Photograph (c)2017