A friend sent me a photo of a spectacular sunset, and it took my breath away. The sky is ablaze with streaks of pink, orange and violet blue. The glowing tapestry of colors is perfectly reflected in the still waters of the bay outside his house, where he and his wife are hunkered down by themselves, away from friends and family this holiday season in light of the pandemic.
I immediately asked if he used a filter and he said, “No, that’s exactly the way it looked.” “Wow, how can that be?” I mused as I stared at the photo in disbelief.
We use the word sunset to signal the end or decline of something. For example, the sunset of an empire. As no one I know is ruling over an empire, perhaps the sunset of a relationship or a job is more relevant.
Looking back, the first week of March 2020 could be seen as the sunset of life as we knew it. As I continued to marvel at the beauty of the spectacular sunset in the photo, I thought about how God creates such beauty even at the end of the day. What beauty is God creating out of the “sunsets” in my life? What beauty can I discover in the endings of things, including the end of life as we knew it in a pre-Covid world?
So what is coming? A miracle is coming. Joy is coming. Hope is coming. And none of them are only on their way; they are also already here with me, with us.
As I look back on the “sunsets” in my life, the loss of loved ones, of jobs, of relationships I may not have been ready to release, I can see clearly that God walked with me hand in hand through it all. It was hard, if not impossible, to see that presence at the time. Some of the whys of those “sunsets” may never be answered fully in this life. Yet I have enough evidence to see that God is enough in all of the turbulent and challenging times, when it feels like darkness is falling and the light has gone.
For now, I’ll take it one day at a time, and on some days, just one tiny step at a time. When I look at this photo, I’ll remember that all things are possible, and that even endings can be hopeful, because I know a “sunrise” is just around the corner.