by fran dreascher

Created on: May 04, 2009   Last Updated: May 06, 2009

The sky is on fire. The clouds burn with the intensity of a roaring flame. The colors span the spectrum of light, from brightest red to darkest violet. God show us he is there, as the sun moves its position in the sky. To stop for a moment to take in the beauty is to allow yourself a thousand years in the presence of God. A moment can turn into an eternity. You may be unable to make the moment last forever, but you will always carry within yourself that spectacle of sheer, unadulterated beauty and the joy that it gave your soul.

When I have days that have beaten me down, when I have problems that seem insurmountable, when trouble weighs on me like the rock that Sisyphus was compelled to roll upward over and over again, these are the moments when watching the sunset lifts my spirit. Just as Theseus lifted the rock his father had left, a sunset lifts the weight from my shoulders. It reminds of what is most important in this world. It reminds me that a new day will come and, with it, the chance to make it as beautiful as God has made the world.

Sunsets in New York may not have the exact beauty of those out west, but there have been many times that I have been driving home, stuck in traffic, filled with the worries of the world and have seen the purple and orange and pink that the clouds become when the sun strikes them in it's descent. I have seen other people walk out of a building rushing to get to one place or another and just stop to look at the sky. In this day and age most people will only stop to look at tragedy and yet almost everyone will stop to take in the sight of a beautiful sunset. That tells you the power that the sun setting has on the soul of the world.

I spent some time out west this past summer and it was only then that I realized that I had never seen a sunset as God intended me to. I was so taken away with the beauty of the heavens that I took hundreds of pictures. I took pictures of clouds burning, pictures of the sky at its most violet, pictures of clouds that made me want to leap into the sky to lay my head upon them and feel the softness of their form. I will never forget these moments. I will never forget the day I stood at the Grand Canyon and watched a beam of sunshine burst through a formation of clouds as if it were a lighthouse that God had placed for me, and me alone, to guide me home. If ever there were an atheist that saw such a sight, they would fall to their knees and pray to God for forgiveness. Because you cannot doubt his existence when you have experienced moments such as these.

Of all the pictures I took on that trip, most of them were of the sky. It is breathtaking in the way that looking at the face of your newborn child is. It is just as soothing and entrancing as looking into a roaring bonfire but, oh, so much more. It is when the sun is setting that God reminds us of the artist that he is. It is then that he paints the world anew for us. When the rain falls he washes us clean and when the sun sets he brings us to life. If you have never been out west and have never seen the golden fire that the sky becomes as the sun sets then for your own sake take a look at these pictures. They took me from a time in which I felt hopeless and inspired in me the desire to go and live my dreams. It does not take much to inspire a person. Only a daily miracle in the sight of a sunset.

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