I Chase Sunsets, an Introduction

Recently, I was asked to briefly describe myself. Hmmmm … Teacher? Mother? Wife? Child of God? Grammar Police? Indeed, when pinned down like that, it’s hard to quickly mash sixty-six years into a few words and not be trite or cliche. Taking a moment to consider what trouble my answer could possibly get me into, I decided on the following:

I am Beverly. I chase sunsets.

My pursuits began, believe it or not, with a song. As a child, I was a fan of musicals. It may not be a well-known cinematic accomplishment today (perhaps it is no longer “politically correct”–I don’t remember enough about the plot to comment on that), but I fell in love with Rogers and Hammerstein’s Flower Drum Song. “A hundred million miracles are happ’ning every day. And those who say they don’t agree are those who do not hear or see.” Those lyrics were eye-opening and soul-opening to me. Looking for those miracles became a life-style. 

Have you ever taken time to think deeply about the miracles of God’s creation? Not just that He made the world in seven days, and not just that He stepped out into nothing and created everything out of only His omnipotent, omniscient imagination and His majestic, incomprehensible language, and not just that He did it in a way that each bit of creation was first given what it needed to exist in the universe– for example, fish were not created until there was water to swim in, birds were not created until there was sky to fly in, people were not created until there was land and oxygen and food to sustain them– but that within every minuscule element of creation, there was detail, design, and purpose. Consider the feathers of a peacock, the veins of a leaf, the eyelashes of a baby!

What about color?

Have you ever really contemplated color?

That same God of Creation is the one who invented the concept and science of color, and it is one of the greatest free gifts He has given to the world. The scriptures speak of a rainbow, a coat of many colors, and the colorful stones in the ephod of the high priest–all signs of promises. Furthermore, beyond the written word is God’s own canvas–purple mountains riding on silver mist, green grass strewn with yellow buttercups, azure skies flowing with snow-white clouds, soft, tawny creatures moving through olive woods, bright sunrises fleeing before the round, red sun, gray smoke billowing from a blazing, orange campfire–all that and much, much more, perpetually changing and unceasingly offered from the palette of the Artist of artists, free gifts to all the creatures of His world! We need only look. 

Seeking out these miraculous moments of color has become a passion to me. Scroll through my phone and you find hundreds of pictures of flowers, hillsides, ice-laden trees, full moons, sunrises, and sunsets. Don’t tell my boss, but I have been late for school a couple of times because I pulled over to the side of the road to take pictures of the sunrise. At the other end of the day, I have often turned the car around and retraced my route to capture the best view of a sunset. Someone like me once said that when he got the perfect picture of the perfect sunset, he would stop photographing them. Certainly, I’m on that same quest.

I am Beverly. I chase sunsets.

Do you have a favorite color?

Most people have a favorite color. Do you? What blessings come to you in that color? The sun on your child’s hair? The waves on a Gulf beach? Your most comfortable old sweatshirt? Honestly, I don’t think I can claim a favorite any more. Creation is bursting with shades, tints, tones, and hues! According to Google, humans can distinguish nearly ten million of them. I believe there are even more, and every one is a gift.

I am Beverly. I chase sunsets.

God bless you and all your colors today.