A Growing Beauty

There's something quietly strong about nature. Tonight the ocean once again became my muse. It is constantly changing and yet it is always the same.

Tonight started out as a dark evening with a plethora of stars strewn across the sky in complex patterns that God Himself designed and knows. But the "crowning moment" of the evening came when the moon boldly rose up from the darkness of the ocean as an ever-brightening orb of pure, orange beauty. As it rose it cast a path across the water almost to my feet. And if the simple, incredible beauty of the moon was not enough, two shooting stars coursed their flaming trails through my vision.

There two things the made the evening even better than the pure incredibleness (yes, I make up words)of nature. One was the fact the I was with friends. I am so blessed with friends. The ocean was unquestionably amazing tonight. But to share it with friends who enjoy it equally as much, is so much better.

The second thing is that those of us there tonight know the One Who created all of those things. That fact is incredible and adds so much to the experience of the evening. It was almost as if God said throughout the evening, "Oh, you think that was beautiful?! Wait til you see this!" And each thing was successively more amazing. To know that God is so big and powerful the He can create such amazing displays of beauty with no effort at all is to know that He is completely trust-worthy when it comes to my life.

We had to wait for awhile tonight before the moon came up. But when it did come up, it was completely worth the wait. Though I have only lived a relatively short time, I have a deep seated belief that God has a long-term plan for me. I don't know what it is. I can't see the full beauty of the whole picture yet. I don't feel like the "moon has risen" in my life yet. But I believe that as I walk with God, He will guide my walk and shape me into something beautiful so that at the end of my life, people will see an amazing picture of God's incredible grace that will point to Him and glorify Him in the same way that the moonrise did tonight. It's an amazing privilege to be on such an incredible journey with such a powerful, trust-worthy God.