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From: PurposeDrivenLife.com
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Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 2:32 AM
Subject: Daily Devotional for Friday
January 28, 2005
One Too Many Sunsets
by John Fischer
Have you ever looked at the sunset with the sky mellowing red?
And the clouds suspended like feathers?
Then I say: you've seen Jesus my Lord.
I wrote these lyrics in 1969 while working at a camp near Santa
Cruz, California after spending a number of afternoons watching the sun go
down over the Pacific Ocean. The resulting song, "Have You Seen Jesus My
Lord?" has lived on to enjoy widespread usefulness including certain
Catholic and Lutheran traditions that have adopted it as a theme song for
spiritual retreats.
I remember receiving some criticism over the message of this
song being pantheistic-an eastern belief that God is in everything. My
meaning was that God is in the sunset to the extent that Vincent Van Gogh is
in "Starry Night," his most well known painting. "Starry Night" tells us a
good deal about Vincent-his love of color, his view of the abstract, even
his turbulent emotional nature. If you've seen Vincent's paintings, you've
experienced him to a certain degree. He's not in the painting, but his
nature can be experienced through our enjoyment of the painting. It is the
same with God and the sunset, and by this, I don't mean God, as a concept,
but Jesus Christ, as intimately involved in the creative process.
John says that Jesus was "in the beginning with God. He created
everything there is. Nothing exists that He didn't make. Life itself was in
Him, and this life gives light to everyone" (John 1:2-4 NLT). It was this
intimate, personal involvement with creation that gave me the confidence to
state that if you have seen the sunset, you have seen Jesus, its Painter.
Recently, I have found this power of natural revelation to be
true in a very dramatic way. Apparently one of the world's most respected
atheists has announced in his eighties, that he is no longer an atheist, but
a theist. In other words, he now believes there is a God. This is a huge
move especially when you consider this person has made a name for himself in
his unbelief, and his identity must be linked to this position in a very
powerful way. He's risking his life's work in coming out with this. And to
what does he credit this incredible reversal? The sunset. There is simply no
way in his imagination that such beauty can be explained without a designer,
a creator, or a Mastermind behind it. The man simply saw one too many
sunsets to not believe there was a Creator involved.
The sunset is a powerful thing when even a crusty,
self-proclaimed, famous unbeliever can't deny its Author. Remember this the
next time you see one, and worship.
John Fischer is the Senior Writer for Purpose Driven Life
Daily Devotionals. He resides in Southern California with his wife, Marti
and son, Chandler. They also have two adult children, Christopher and Anne.
John is a published author and popular speaker.
© 2004 Purpose Driven Life. All rights reserved.
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