Sunrise at 35,000 Feet

Saturday, Jan 26:

Bob and I left our hotel at 4:30 AM this morning to catch the first leg of our flight back to Baltimore. After we dropped off our 12 PASSENGER VAN at the rental center (it actually turned out to be a blessing as they were short of transportation from the church to the airport and we were able to take a whole van load of pastors to their planes Friday afternoon…God is good!), we boarded our plane and took off at about 6:30 AM. It felt profoundly early but, as we were soon to see, it would be worth it.

It was just beginning to turn twilight as the plane taxied out to the runway. As we took off, we were blessed by quite a view outside our windows. We were headed due North to Denver and had a ringside seat to one of the most spectacular sun rises I have ever seen. The horizon was on fire with brilliant flashes of orange and gold and yellow like a ribbon of iridescent neon stretching from the North to the South, a narrow, burning foundation for the sky above which was an dazzling array of blues. Above the ribbon of fire, the yellow turned to white and the white to light blue deepening into a rich royal blue which darkened into a deep, velvety blue. Above the deep blue was an incredibly dark, midnight blue which was a background for thousands of brilliant, twinkling stars and behind them a glowing carpet of stardust.

I was awestruck! The best photographer in the world with the finest filters could not have created what I saw outside my window. Van Gogh, on his best day, couldn't even come close to what I was looking at. For a few moments, I sincerely regretted not having my camera. But then I remembered a verse. It's in Numbers 14 and it says, "….all the earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord!" And there it was, right before me…the glory of the Lord...filling the earth, bringing light, warming it with His Spirit, opening its' eyes, waking it up and bringing all the beauty of His glorious presence as He rises above the all of creation.

I just put my head back and let it fill my spirit with the knowledge of an awesome and wonderful God Who decided, on this morning, to give us a small glimpse of His glory. It's been a great conference. We had great fellowship, great teaching and this little blessing was a great coda to our time in New Mexico. Now I'm looking forward to seeing our great family at home and at WBF.

Our plane touched down in Denver just as the sun began to peak out over the top of the mountains, an amazing beginning to a new day.