beautiful.

there's a fleeting few moments between daylight and nightfall in which the horizon erupts in a rainbow variety of pinks and oranges and blues and yellows and purples and fiery reds.  just before dusk pulls its curtain down to meet with the tree line, the sunset speaks silent yet bold to the world around about its Creator.  in a moment, the very breath slips out from my lungs as a gasp; ignorant to the cold chill that typically penetrates my bones with a long-lasting bitterness. i breathe in deep and feel with all of my senses.  the Lord steals my breath away with silhouette of the bare trees of late fall, backlit by the marked beauty of the sunset hues.  in moments like this, you can't help but feel alive, and completely at ease with the way things are, if only for that moment.  and just as quickly and quietly as it came, the navies and indigos of nightfall settle in and begin to kiss the ground.  my heart has been wrecked, like a longing glance from a secret lover, causing my heart to melt and my knees to wobble.

and as the stars begin to make their crystal-like appearance as the heavens go black, the wooing of my soul begins again.  so is God's pursuit of our heart.  He is like a suitor, offering the most generous of gifts, romancing our distracted and wayward hearts back to our first love.  His gifts, however, are eternal, transformational.  they cause our senses to awaken, the stone abounding in our hearts to be chiseled.  and the beauty He sees emanate from the stroke of His hand in the Heavens and on the horizon are incomparable to the beauty He sees in the dirt and ash and crumbs of a heart surrendered to Him.