God’s Magnificent Best

 

 

 

Standing on the beach

Looking across the sea,

Feeling pleased as punch

As on a bun I munched.

The sun was sinking low

Setting the water aglow,

‘Twas a splendid sight

As the sky came alight.

My eyes held to the line

Separating sky from sea,

My mind on its accuracy

Showing God’s ability.

Artists try to illustrate

The beauty that they see,

But always falling short

Of God, His Majesty.

Yes, I was overwhelmed,

This work of the Supreme,

Captured my entire being,

This feast my eyes had seen.

 

It was absolutely fabulous,

Not that I could be a judge

Of the handiwork of God,

My eyes won’t even budge.

I stared in trapped oblivion,

I could not look away,

The view held my attention

There at the close of day.

I was frozen by its beauty,

In my mind I heard a voice,

Have your eyes seen better?

“No,” was my spoken choice.

My greatest desire that time

Was to be truly locked away,

With this rich phenomenon

I was viewing from the bay.

Then I attempted to analyse

This scene before my eyes,

I was aware of my limitations

And struck by God’s creation.

 

The many rulers it would take

To draw that straight horizon,

And the steady hand to make

It flow with such precision.

I thought of those great artists

Who then and in the past,

Had painted many a sunset

But this had all outclassed.

No doubt these artists too

Had given God much praise,

When in one such moment

Their eyes on a sunset gazed.

The colours were resplendent,

Their numbers I couldn’t count,

They cascaded in the ocean

And form a magnificent fount.

Even as the ripples danced

In the gentle evening breeze,

I stood transfixed in a trance

My attention God had seized.

 

Suddenly I wanted to scream

“God, you are so very great!”

But I contained my ecstasy,

Allowing reason to dictate.

Again came the inner voice,

“Must you dissect everything?

Won’t you ever understand

How much there is in listening?”

This was not for examination

But simply for me to enjoy,

I had wasted time in analysis

Now I felt like the errant boy.

In a moment the sun was gone,

The spectacle had disappeared,

And with it that thing of beauty,

At which I could no longer stare.

I knew I had missed that moment

When the sun had slipped away,

I had been caught in my analysis

That had worked to my dismay

 

But in my depths of solitude,

That voice had said to me,

“That’s not my magnificent best,

For that, just look to Calvary.

That was a sunset too you know,

The disciples sure thought it so,

They too had missed the beauty

Of the blood for sin that flowed.”

God’s Son was on that cross

And for our sins He did atone,

‘Twas such a glorious sight

And Jesus did it all alone.

For God so earnestly desires

To paint upon every heart,

That picture of the Saviour

Today you should let Him start.

 

Just view that greater Light

As you gaze upon that scene,

See where Jesus hung in agony

There, you and me to redeem,

At his back was the sinking sun,

God’s Son silhouetted in its light,

For the disciples a horrid sight

But God was displaying His might.

Many have wondered at this

And have called it a mystery,

In the midst of apparent defeat

God had painted the victory.

Jesus cried out, “It is finished!”

Many thought it was the end

But the painting was that sunset

Before the sunrise God did send.

 

  

“That was my magnificent best,”

God said, the painting yet unfinished

Was marked “to be continued”,

As the Light would be diminished.

This sunset was really not about

The sun’s departing radiance,

But was meant to be the herald

Of the Son’s uprising brilliance.

God’s magnificent best was no sunset

That adorned that evening sky,

Rather, it was the life that Jesus gave

As that Passover evening drew nigh.

Good Friday evening and Easter Morn,

The sinking sun and the crack of dawn,

The crucified Jesus and the risen Christ,

All speak of the Lamb and His sacrifice.

Stewart Russell © 2014