The Setting Sun Rises

By Peter Lundell –

The jet took off as the last sliver of the setting sun dipped below the horizon, perfect timing to witness a rare sight. A moment later the gray sky and dark line of the earth was pierced by the same sliver of sun that seemed to push back up. Then a layer of clouds blocked the sun, but behind them the sky grew brighter in hues of orange and blue. As we continued to climb above the stratus clouds, the sun emerged bigger than before. High, wispy cirrus clouds veiled it in a dreamy skyscape, and as the plane continued to rise, the orange ball seemed to ascend with us.

The plane reached its cruising altitude of 36,000 feet, and after a full half- hour in flight, this sun, which had fully set at our moment of takeoff, had risen back up into a full round ball. Nature had gone in reverse.

Of course it was an optical illusion of our rising in altitude, which made the setting sun appear to rise. But still weird.

I wondered about mysteries of the natural world that defy our normal thinking. And I wondered about the supernatural, what we call the miraculous or impossible. From God’s perspective it may all be natural.

In God’s dimension, the Trinity is natural. So is being outside of time and existing in what we call the spiritual world. Probably the strangest thing on earth, Quantum Physics, must be normal to God.

Educated Westerners are probably the most answer-oriented logic-mongers on earth. We don’t like mystery unless we can solve it. But God is full of mystery because He is so beyond us. And sometimes the setting sun rises.

How have you experienced mysteries of God or His creation?

“Lord, open my heart as wide as my eyes. Let me see beyond my sight. Let me embrace the mysteries of Your world and appreciate them as mystery, appreciate You as mystery, for You are infinitely beyond me.”

“Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish” (Isaiah 29:14 NIV).