When I’m out running near sunset and the sky turns into a peaceful pink and purple fire, my first urge is to race back home and show this spectacle to my family. I wonder if all our neighbors are at least looking out their windows. And anyone I pass running, walking, biking or driving with their back turned to the spectacular view, well, it seems wrong.
This happened a few evenings ago as I ran around our local lake. Mid-way through my run, I turned around to head home and the vivid colors in the sky set off by the calm water created a stunning trance-like experience. It was amazing and for a moment it sure seemed like I should yell at everyone going the wrong way to turn around. Thankfully I calmed down in time to enjoy the sunset without continuing to wonder what’s wrong with everyone else.
Really, just moments before, my back was turned on the sunset because that’s the nature of an “out and back” run. And who knows how many sunsets, not to mention sunrises, I’ve missed because I needed to sleep, work, clean etc. People have reasons for their priorities…even if they don’t seem right to everyone else.
I don’t know about you but I have to catch myself from snap judgments in other areas of my life as well. Resolutions, convictions, healthy eating and fitness goals all seem good until I look around and wonder why others don’t agree. All things are up for debate — even what’s healthy and what’s not. But when I see how a change improves life, it begins to seem like common sense and I almost forget that just years, days or moments earlier, I wasn’t resolved to be more healthy, thankful or generous. Or like Christ.
A perfectly-timed run into the sunset depends on many variables lining up just right, and so too does a changed heart. God’s desire is for everyone to love and follow Him and to that end, He can use time to reveal His beauty to different people. What some learn early, others learn later. This doesn’t mean anyone is slow, it just means the variables in our lives are unique and God has a different plan for everyone. Some will see the beauty in God’s truth early in life while others will turn their back on everything God has to offer. But, a very inspiring verse in Revelations 7 says that every tribe that ever existed on earth will be represented in heaven. That means even if a missionary wasn’t able to make it to certain lost civilizations, God did. Somehow He revealed His truth to them and all were allowed to make their own choice as to whether or not they would follow. And some did. To me, that is the most compelling beauty to run alongside.
Revelation 7:9-10
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
