“Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father….” Matthew 13:43a

As I descended the gray, cobblestone steps after evening church, the sky was a kaleidoscope of crimson clouds against the dark, blue mountains. I couldn’t speak, as I stood in awe at God’s final amen to the day.

After a few minutes a southerly gust of wind rustled newly fallen autumn leaves at my feet. As the wind picked up, I turned from the sunset to see a fast moving storm full of large, dark, ominous clouds coming from the opposite direction. Even though the sky was darkening, the sun seemed to pause with its lingering rays brushing palettes of color over the last patches of blue on the clouds and the fringed tips of the hills before fading behind the mountains.

There was such a contrast between this beautiful finale and the approaching, threatening turbulence. I couldn’t help but wonder, what will my last ‘Pause’ in life be like? A sunset or a storm?

In many ways our life coincides with the rising and the setting of the sun. It begins with sunrise, the birth of a new day full of hope and promise bursting with life. As this orb in the sky climbs and reaches for its highest point, we too, ascend to the pinnacle of our careers and experiences. Gradually, as the daylight fades, our ebbing life declines like a receding tide having touched its highest point on shore. At eventide, the hues of our lives deepen and change from the brilliant yellow whites to the crimson oranges, rusts and the deep velvet blues.

The sun has been shining, but at the close of day it displays its magnificent beams of light to create glimmering prisms in the sky before piercing the last fragments of blue left in the horizon. With life, before the last flicker of existence that began this journey is extinguished, there is a Pause; the laurels of earlier times remembered and cherished while embracing the lingering moments with rays of joy.

Will our declining days be brilliant as the sunset? Will we savor the best until the last? Is our life’s experiences culminating into one glorious orchestra of color in tranquil shades bringing peace, quiet and joy to others still finishing their journey? Or, is the final stage exhibiting qualities like the approaching storm with black, billowing clouds full of unrest, thunder and harshness – a storm people are anxious to see leave and move on?

The sun is set now. But I’m still here in my journey. I have time to choose the direction my life will take: a spectacular sunset taking one’s breath away making a statement, or an unwelcome storm embittered and alone. I’m glad there is a choice.

Dear Heavenly Father, Sometimes it is hard not to be a storm. But, Lord, with Your help and remembering in all things You are in charge, may my ‘Pause’ in life be to others a radiant sunset; a witness to Your love and not a stumbling block as a foreboding storm.

In Jesus Name, Amen.

MY MOMENTS

Are you where you want to be in your ‘Pause’ in life? Journal any changes you would like to make, giving them to the Lord. This week simply watch the sunsets. From your heart record how each one speaks to you. Is there one you will remember over all the rest? Why? Rest in these peaceful moments alone with God.

Sharon L. Reidenbach is a writer of devotionals and children’s stories. This devotion is from her book, Nature’s Healing Voice – A Fifty-Two Week Devotional and Journal, due to be published late in the fall of 2007. She is a former English teacher and a grandmother of four. Reidenbach lives in Spokane, Washington with her husband.