Not either-or ... but eternal

There's usually only a very small window in the day where an observer - rooted to the terrestrial crust - can simultaneously see both the heavens and the earth with any degree of clarity.

Typically the moon is hard to photograph during the day because the space around it is too light to provide adequate contrast; while at night any effort to coax color from the earth results in a moon too brilliant to reveal its beauty in detail.

So this past weekend, walking the dog after an early supper, I was excited to see a full moon ease gracefully over the horizon to the east. I ran inside for my camera, fumbled with the right lens, and made it back outside a little late for the best but just in time to capture the idea.

I could not help but think about my interface with God. I strive diligently, sometimes, to apprehend the presence of glory but God is all too difficult to distinguish when ambient reality presses in. Then, when I do get a handle on worship I can't see anything else but God and the experience seems to have nothing to do with daily life.

But then there is twilight. It is there that I can hold the truth about eternity in equal measure with the mundane.

It's not easy to maintain the divine presence in face of glaring and noisy "worldness". But it is of critical importance that I learn to cultivate my ability to see God in the middle of what we call reality... because God is - in truth - more real and compelling. It is the plan of the Creator to be evident in and through creation, especially the nitty-gritty of the day-to-day lives those made "in the image of God" grind out 24/7. Not seperate, but integral; not either-or, but integrated; not in contrast, but in constant.

- DEREK