Fleeting Moments

Sunsets, storm clouds, the lacy pattern of water droplets shimmering in the sunlight – these are the fleeting images from the last 24 hours that are forever burned into my memory. Oh, how I wish I had a camera at the ready to capture them forever! But alas, I did not. And so I must try to capture their essence with wholly inadequate words, to paint their delightful flavor on the canvas of my computer screen so that their awe-inspiring beauty can be enjoyed over and over again in life’s dark and dismal moments.

Yesterday’s sunset danced atop the trees with a beauty such as I’ve never witnessed before. The setting sun was enormous – seemingly twice as big as it should have been – with a deep tangerine hue. It teased my eyes with exquisite grace as it quickly slipped below the treeline, almost as if it were playing a game of hide and seek with me as I drove towards it. I raced around turn after turn, hoping to get past the treeline in time to see it again, and I did! It hovered at the end of the highway, stretched fully from one side of the two-lane road to the other, dancing along the blacktop with merry abandon. I tried to catch a picture on my cell phone, but – darn! – there was a truck in between me and the undulating tangerine orb. I drove with my cell phone camera focused on the sun, waiting for the vehicle in my way to turn; but the opportunity for a clear shot never presented itself before my brilliant dancing sun slipped from view in front of my outstretched hand.

Though I missed capturing the beauty of that sunset on film, God wasn’t finished with His artistic endeavors for the day. Another bend in the road opened my view to a sky full of towering cumulus clouds, reflecting the rosy glow of the sun. Shades of blue, yellow and pink adorned the edges of the puffy clouds, moving and changing as the sun continued her gradual westward journey and the night sky crept in from the east.

With this morning’s dew settled deep on my car windows, I sleepily headed out to work. As I turned a corner and the rising sun hit my dew-covered side window, I noticed that little droplets of water had started an uphill journey across the window from the force of the passing wind. Droplet followed droplet, each taking a slightly different yet similar path, forming trails of clear glass amid the dew-covered pane. As I passed through shadows, where the sun hid behind trees, the window just appeared wet and fogged and streaked. But every now and then, as I passed a meadow where the rising sun shone brightly, the window sparkled with thousands of white light reflections of undulating furrows, with busy droplets of water etching more before my very eyes.

I can’t help but wonder how many other beautiful, God-given moments I’ve missed because I was too preoccupied with the mundane tasks of every day life to notice them.