Chasing Sunsets - Sacred & Still: A 5-Day Lenten Devotional

“The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.” (Psalm 19:1-4, NLT)

I exited the grocery store at a brisk clip, but my pace stuttered then slowed as I noticed the sky’s brilliance. Luminous pinks and oranges painted the sky in exquisite hues my camera could never do justice.

“You should go look outside,” I texted my daughter once I reached the car. “The clouds are pink and pretty over by the sunset.” By the time I arrived home a few minutes later, she was stepping outside our front door, head tilted upward. But other homes and large trees concealed the view.

For a second, I considered the groceries sitting in the back seat, then rolled down my window.

“Hop in,” I said. Shoeless, she raced to the passenger side and buckled in. We cruised west until we hit a country road with nothing to obscure the matchless view. We paused, watching the sun’s final rays disappear toward the horizon.

My daughter loves chasing beauty, especially if it’s in the sky. Thanks to her, I’ve found myself noticing it more frequently. She’s good at looking up and appreciating the sunrise, the sunset, or the clouds. In fact, if you scroll through her camera roll, that’s what you’ll see: Scattered among silly candid photos with friends and screenshots of cute celebrities are loads more of the sky in all its beauty—dreamy puffs of white gently scudding across the sky or angry thunderheads lumbering hugely in the distance, pearlescent gray and blue clouds juxtaposed with hues of soft yellow and gentle peach, bright rays of blinding sunlight streaming through gaps in the clouds, or misty fog rising gently from below to envelop the view.

As humans, we’re wired to chase beauty. Some of it is superficial. We focus on clothes or makeup, youthfulness or strength. We marvel at a shimmering outdoor pool or an immaculate backyard, the newest decor or the fanciest homes.

But our need for the beauty provided by nature is more profound. In some ways, we are made to crave it: Our bodies revel in the vitamin D provided by the sun, and research has repeatedly demonstrated how nature positively affects our mental health.

But all this proves is that our bodies reflect an essential truth ingrained in us—that our search for beauty in all its forms is a search for the divine, and it’s through creation that we glimpse it. The fingerprints of our Creator are scattered over every mountain, forest, desert, and prairie, and they all point us back to him.

In this regard, science echoes Scripture. In a paper published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, researchers explored how humans respond to “ephemeral phenomena.” They found that sunrises and sunsets could “trigger significant boosts in people’s feelings of awe”—something that is usually hard for scientists to elicit in their research. Awe, they found, can potentially “improve mood, enhance positive social behavior, and increase positive emotions.”^a

As Christians, we know that the awe we experience over the sun’s beauty isn’t simply because of the colorful display. Psalm 19 talks about how the heavens are a sign of God’s craftsmanship. They display his glory for us. A sunset is a wordless wonder for us to appreciate, pointing us back to him.

In this way, our pursuit of beauty becomes a turnabout. We realize that the beauty of this world is part of God’s pursuit of us. He is drawing us to him. He is present in the natural world; he is there in creation because it is his. And we are his too. As children of God, we are created in the image of our Father. He is the one who created the heavens, the earth and its contents, and us, and called it all good. Because of him, we can comprehend the pleasure of the sun’s warm rays on our faces or the sand between our toes. He created us that way.

The truth is that when we pursue God, we find that he is already present. When we pause to take in an awe-inspiring sunset, we can take comfort in the larger truth it reminds us of: God’s glory is on display for all to see, if we’ll only take the time to notice it.

And there is a steadiness to God’s pursuit that is echoed in nature. The sun rises and sets every day, whether or not we notice it. God’s glory is on display, reminding us that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He is unchanging. He is steady. Immovable. Through creation, God is writing a message to humanity that remains the same: He is always ready, always waiting, boundless and eternal. But it’s up to us to see creation for what it is—an invitation into the larger story he is writing, one in which humanity chases beauty and instead finds the God who created it.

Lord, thank you for the beauty of sunrises, sunsets, and everything you have created. May we take time to notice the beauty of the world around us today, using every glimpse of beauty as an opportunity to draw closer to you. May our awe for something as simple as a sunset remind us how awesome you are, how much you love us, and how—when we pursue you—we realize that you have been waiting for us all along. Amen.

For Reflection: How does creation remind us of God’s pursuit of us? Why do you think God uses his creation to draw us to him?

Sacred Rhythms: Spend time today watching the sunrise or the sunset. Thank God for the way in which creation reminds us of how he pursues us.