Glance Back

"I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago."
Psalm 77:11 (NIV)

The other evening I noticed a simple and pretty sunset to the west (pictured above). God's artistry in our California skies is always worth stopping and appreciating.

Then I felt an inner urge to turn around, whereupon I saw this:

Looking eastward I saw complexity, beauty, and glowing colors that I would not have suspected were there, because that's not where the action (sunset) was taking place.

Why, just when I am entering a new school term, would I pause to look over my shoulder at the past? Because the view may just give me more courage than if I look forwards.  

Sometimes the very things that we're glad to have left in the past, take on a gorgeous hue under God's paintbrush. God is coloring the grey beautiful, painting the storm clouds with pink-orange linings, bringing out a new third dimension in situations that we only saw in two dimensions. If we didn't take some time to look back over our shoulders at the right time, we would miss the reflections of His glory.

"Sweet light," as my photographer friend, Gary Hamburgh, refers to this time on the borders of darkness and light, day and night. Sweet light. The view over your shoulder may well be more beautiful than the view ahead of you, where you think the light is. Ellen White, an early writer in my church, described this same sentiment.

In reviewing our past history, having traveled over every step of our advance to our present standing, I can say, Praise God! As I see what the Lord has wrought, I am filled with astonishment, and with confidence in Christ as leader. We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history. (Ellen G. White. Life Sketches, 196.)

Glance back. If you do so with a heart for clear vision, you may arrive at the same conclusion I have:

We have nothing to fear.