Living In the Sonrise

My Sunday School lesson was on seeing God in all of creation today.  I am not the teacher of the class, I just really enjoy participating when I am not on nursery duty.  It is a privilege and sometimes a rarity for me to have conversations with adults of which many of whom are older and wiser than I.  It was interesting that we got to talking about the beauty of a sunrise and I was able to share with them my awareness of that beauty earlier this week and the quote I had been thinking about from C.S. Lewis, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."  Some in the class were able to hash it out a little further and talk about how God has created things that really have no useful purpose for us except for that of our pure enjoyment and delight in the beauty thereof  and that these "things of beauty" ultimately point us to acknowledge and to praise our Creator.  All those thoughts led me to thinking what it would be like if I didn't believe in God when I saw a sunrise...because usually when I do, I tell Him He did a great job with that one and I chat with Him for a while about it.  Hopefully there are others that do this too, but if not...it doesn't bother me too much that you know this about me.  Anyway, I guess I am thinking that Christians can see life differently because we can commune with the Creator of it all...that's pretty awesome to think about.

One thing I was challenged by, though, in my own thought progression was that it is easier for me to do this (praise my Creator) with things in nature than it is for me to do with people.  When a person uses their own talents and abilities to create something beautiful or meaningful...it seems as though I get stuck on the abilities of that person.  Not that I can't thank a person for using their abilities to glorify God and encourage them to continue doing so and enjoying using the talents God has given them, but still God did the gifting so that person would be able to accomplish this "thing of beauty".  Who are any of us that we could have been there when God was planning us and whisper in His ear the talents we would want to be blessed with?...that is a funny thought to me.  Like Tinkerbell when she was so upset that she was born a Tinker and tried to make herself into a different kind of fairy to no avail....I did like when she tried to be a light fairy...I know way too much about Tinkerbell!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkvSz-mKvhY 

I love that I can sing and now I love giving it all back to Him, but learning to live with a talent that is used in front of others has been a struggle for me personally...because I am an introvert...I am emotional....and sometimes I really worry about what others think of me.  When I was in college, God and I had a long conversation about my singing talent in front of a mirror in a bathroom of my college dorm at about 2 in the morning with the song Seize the Day playing on the radio.  I know it because that was when I finally surrendered this ability to Him...I had used it for Him before that, but I had always been so concerned about what others thought of me until that time. For some reason, that early morning I finally got it...that all the rest of my life...however many people were in the room...I was going to be singing for one and if I belted it out or decided to raise my hands or even dance a little bit...it was OK if it was for Him.  The talent is ultimately His, not mine.  I can't tell you the joy I have experienced since then in that area of my life.  I think there is freedom in acknowledging our Creator and submitting to Him.  I know so many people view submission as an opposite to freedom, but it really is not that way in my experience.  There is such a freeing that comes from getting self out of the way and giving something completely to God.  This is just one example for me of learning to live in the SONRISE...letting God change my perspective, letting God break me of some of my selfishness or my self-consciousness, and letting Him use me for His glory...what a privilege...every time!

So, I guess...even in the middle of a snowstorm....it is possible to feel like this...

When the winter wind comes chasin' after me, I think of you . . . And it's as though I crawl beneath the blanket soft and warm.  How did I get from dark to daylight, before you happened to pass by?  How did I find my way through life, before you brightened up my sky?  
Was there a sky at all, until you painted it for me?  How did I get on, 'till you came along?

 -words from I Think Of You- sung by Perry Como