Anyone who fails to see the beauty in Kansas must not be looking up! We are so often granted a spectacular display in the enormous Kansas sky. After being blessed by this sunset one evening, I got to thinking about the fleeting nature of a gorgeous sunset or sunrise. So much beauty, just to be enjoyed for the moment. Even a photograph can’t really capture how truly breathtaking and majestic it is. You just have to be there at the right spot, at the right time. A masterpiece that lasts only minutes? Why? Isn’t that kind of wasteful?
Raised by parents who were children of the depression, I was taught to invest in things that would last, not that which is only a temporal pleasure. Yet, here is the Father of the universe granting me an intensely gorgeous, but temporary, gift. It begins to dawn on me that maybe, just maybe, there is a lasting, even eternal, value inherent in that which doesn’t last. Maybe it is the fleeting nature of it that makes it all the more precious. Maybe the lasting impact in my soul of awe mingled with gratitude is enough. After all, isn’t that what artwork is really all about, somehow changing the one who witnesses it, as well as the one who created it?
There will never be another evening sky exactly like the amazing one I saw this week, but what the it produced in me remains. The message of God’s majesty lingers to mold me, to subtly steer me on my own creative journey toward what is eternal.
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