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
