Illuminating

Today Mark ponders how the heavens declare God's glory, at The Master's Artist. He is so much more articulate than me, so go read it.

But it did get me thinking. This is part of my comment:

But the glory of the heavens puts us all to shame on a daily basis. The sun is rising as we ride to work now and I often turn my head away, or close my eyes. I can't look at it. But after we follow the curve of the road and the sun isn't directly in my eyes, I can revel in the beautiful golden light illuminating the hills and valleys we drive through. (Kansas is NOT flat.) Maybe that's what we do as artists -- we can't look directly at glory, but we can adjust the angle so the glory illuminates the hills and valleys.

I have been given an amazing gift -- I have to spend 45 minutes twice a day riding through the outskirts of the Kansas Flint Hills. Since we've finally gotten some rain, the landscape is green and if I'm attentive, I can enjoy the beauty unfolding before me. So often, though, I'm paying no attention at all. My mind is elsewhere and I'm preoccupied with my own small life while God's magnificence unfolds before me.

When I do pay attention, I enjoy the interplay of land and sky -- the way the light shines across the landscape at different times of the year, the way the clouds look on a day when storms threaten. It's really never the same scene twice. It looks different on a cloudy day, a sunny day, in winter, spring, summer or fall.

While I can never achieve true perfection in this life, I can try to show the variety of life in my writing. I can adjust the angle so that maybe a bit of God's glory can illuminate the events in my stories. I've certainly got a long way to go, but I have daily inspiration outside the van window.