Wonders In the Sky Above

Well, it looks like here in Denver we’re about to get a taste of the massive heat wave plaguing the nation’s midsection. (Predicted high today: 99 Fahrenheit.) But for the past several days the thunderstorms hitting this area have produced a lot of drama–not just street flooding and stuff like that, but I mean drama in the sky.

I feel sorry for the meteorologists here (sometimes), because the mountains do such a number on the weather that sometimes it is impossible to predict correctly what is going to happen. While lots of people associate Denver with mountains (which are actually just west of us–Denver is on the high plains), even bigger and more dramatic is the sky over us. First of all, the sky tends to be much bluer here than in other places I’ve lived–a combination of low humidity and thinner air, I suppose. But it’s more than that: when afternoon and evening thunderstorms come off the mountains and drift over us, followed by the sunset over the mountains, it sometimes creates an ongoing, ever-changing display in the sky that can literally entertain you for hours if you take the time to look at it.

The past several days, especially in the evening hours leading up to sunset, the skies have been incredibly dramatic.  It’s more than just thunderheads; it’s like every kind of cloud formation you can imagine is somewhere in the sky all at once, illuminated with all sorts of light, shadow and color from the golden hours of the setting sun, and changing by the moment because of the turbulence in the sky. Add to that the lightning from the thunderstorms and multiple rainbows (the other night I saw three different, brilliant rainbows at three different times), and you’ve got quite a show.

And that’s not all…

Add to that the deep oranges, reds and purples that the sun casts upon those clouds as the last sunlight of the day hits them, and you’ve got nothing short of wonders in the sky. And for the encore, a full moon rising behind the clouds next to the thunderstorm still drifting away onto the plains, with the streaking lightning still lighting everything up.

Sigh…not bad for a free show. 🙂

Some folks might find it odd, even amusing perhaps, that I get such a kick out of watching the sky. But the sky is one of the things I absolutely love about Denver, to the point that on the relatively few days where we have totally overcast skies or lots of haze, I get disappointed. It isn’t just the beauty, it’s the ever-changing nature of the sky that totally enthralls me–because when the sky changes, the look of things around you changes as well, and the look of the mountains is always different, too–kind of like the scenery changes around you without you having to move or go on vacation.

The wonders in the sky rekindle that childlike wonder in me, not entirely unlike how my 21-year-old still gets when he talks about Disney World.  What I mean is that there are some things about living life on this planet that I don’t ever want to outgrow.  I don’t want to outgrow being amazed at the sky or the mountains. I don’t want to outgrow the sense of awe I feel, or the ways that the wonders in the sky remind me of the God who created it.

I don’t ever want to outgrow my wonder at God Himself, and I delight in the little ways He makes me feel like a kid again, if I just take time to look.

Perhaps that’s why He says we must come to Him as little children.