I love watching the sunset.
I’ve especially loved it this month in Mozambique. We’re in Africa and Africa just seems to have sunsets more beautiful than all the rest. And we also have a water tower at our ministry site. It’s the perfect place to climb up and just watch the sun slip away.
But mostly I just like watching the sun set.
Sunsets are also a perfect place to just sit and be and contemplate life. And lately I’ve been stuck on the idea of sunsets.
You plop yourself down and stare off into the distance while the sun is still far above the horizon. Maybe you’re with a friend and you start chatting for a while and before you know it, you are looking at a giant, fiery, red ball sitting right on the horizon. The sun is so beautiful when it gets to this point. And then, suddenly, it’s gone. The sun just vanishes before your eyes. Despite taking hours to cross the sky, once it hits the horizon, it’s gone before you know it.
And maybe that’s what makes the sunset so beautiful. It’s the fact that it doesn’t stay, it can’t stay.
Maybe our Race is like that. The middle part seems to be so long. Sometimes weeks seem to pass and you look at a calendar and realize it’s been a day. It’s still awesome, but it feels almost….stagnant, maybe? I don’t know if that’s the right word, but it’ll have to do. And then slowly, the sun starts to dip lower and lower. We stand here and look out at the horizon and realized that this crazy adventure we are on will soon be over. And no matter how hard we try, it’s going to slip right through our fingers before we know it.
And maybe that’s part of the beauty of the Race. The fact that it has to end. The fact that we can’t hold onto these moments forever. And the only thing we can do right now is soak up as much of it as we can.
XX
