Because of You
“You’re the color in every sunrise
You’re the song that the birds love to sing
You’re the brilliance in all of creation
You’re everything to me.”
“Because of You” - Anna Golden
On our recent trip out West, I couldn’t get this song out of my head. Ben and I did a sunrise tour through Monument Valley, Arizona. The guide took us along thirty miles of back-country, dirt roads, weaving through the Native Navajo land while in an open-air 4x4.
As we traveled in the valley, though it was dark with a chill in the air, the amount of peace I felt was stunning. As the colors gently rose up the horizon, I kept thinking to myself - “But, God.” He is the One who orchestrates every sunrise and each element of creation. Standing miles away from electricity and running water, I couldn’t get enough.
As the numerous amount of bright stars slowly faded as light dawned, I couldn’t get rid of my smile. I don’t sit in nature’s beauty long enough. Taking time to give thanks to God for all He’s created is something I need to do more.
Perhaps you too have experienced a similar encounter in creation. In these moments what is one thing we want to do? We want photographs. To freeze the image and forever engrain it in our memory, especially in those moments that stop us in our tracks.
Looking back through my photos even while writing these words, I find myself in awe of all that God did in just six short days. Everything was perfect. At the voice of God, the world became what God intended for it to be. Simply perfect.
Despite the evil that has entered the world through man’s choices, God’s glory and majesty are still evident everywhere we look. The way the leaves change colors and fall off the trees in the fall of the year. The way the water in creeks and rivers knows just which way to flow. The rain shower cools things off on a hot summer day.
We were meant to enjoy creation. Not just let it pass us by. Get outside, or take a look outside, and just enjoy it. Be thankful. Because of God, we have so much to be grateful for.
Psalm 8 ESV
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
