Wyoming Sunset

I am working on a painting of a Wyoming sunset. There is a dark gray piece of sky at the top and there is a dark brown at the bottom. But there is a place of beauty and wonder where heaven and earth meet. This place is filled will blues, yellows, oranges, and bright reds. This place where the sun meets the mountains send those colors through the sky driving back the darkness.

What a picture of faith. We can live with our focus on heaven and God in a theological or philosophical way that becomes drab and even boring. We can on the other hand spend our life focused on earth and all the darkness that is the world without God. Two dark gray areas that bring weariness and boredom. But there is another place where we can live, a place that is alive and bright, filled with joy. There is a place where Jesus and our lives can meet. In this place, the power of God can explode in the very substance of our lives and send showers light and color into the world we live in.

John 1:4&5 describe Jesus as “In Him is life, and the life is the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” In John 8:12 we read that Jesus called Himself “the light of the world.” When the light of Jesus meets our lives, that light explodes in us. In Matthew 5:14 Jesus calls those who believe in Him the “Light of the world” and told the disciples, “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

In John 15:5 Jesus tells the disciples “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears mush fruit.” Galatians 5:22 tells us that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” The Fruit of the Spirit are the things that bring light and color to our lives and our world. When we allow Jesus to touch our lives and change the way we live God light truly shines out driving back the darkness.

This beautiful explosion of light, life, and color does not happen because we attend church or we have asked Jesus for forgiveness. This wondrous transformation only happens when we truly allow Jesus to touch and change our lives on a daily basis.

Does your spiritual life seem boring and drab gray? Does the life you live at home and work dark and lacking the joy, hope and peace you want to experience? Perhaps it is time to stop keeping Jesus in the clouds, and time to stop living dark gray of life untouched by God. There is a place of light and color, a place where the power of God explodes into your life and drives out the darkness. This wondrous place is where the sun touches the mountains, it is the place where you allow Jesus to touch and change your life each day.