More life lessons from watching beach sunrises incoming. Or rather, in this case, eternity lessons.

As I mentioned last week, watching the sunrise over the ocean in the Outer Banks is one of our favorite things to do on vacation. In years past, I would always wake Xoe up for it to (upon her request), and usually the wake-up call went something like: I’d shout, “We’ve got color!” toward her bedroom as I darted up the stairs to turn on the coffee pot.

We’d all go out to the deck, and Xoe would take over my phone and take a slew of photos as the sunrise evolved. We’d pick one to send to the grandmothers.

Well, Xoe is in her senior year of college right now and couldn’t join us, so she instead tasked me with the sacred duty: “Send me sunrise pictures!”

Guys…I am no photographer. And as I fuss with the camera on my phone, I realize anew that Xoe put a whole lot more effort into settings than I frankly know how to do. My photos just aren’t as gorgeous as hers were, even on the same device.

Instead, every morning I gasp at the beauty before me, at the range of colors–the gorgeous pinks, the lightening purples, the spilling gold. I raise my phone, I look at the screen and…I scowl. Pinks look orange. The sky looks brassy and yellow. Shadows look black instead of purple.

I know why. I know my phone’s light sensor reacts to the extreme brightness by dimming, to protect itself. I try fiddling a bit with the brightness, but I’m never happy with those results either, and…I give up, because I’d rather watch the actual beauty unfolding than miss it because I’m arguing with my phone’s camera.

This morning, though, as I set my phone aside, I couldn’t help but think that this problem, silly as it is, is a bit like a modern take on Paul’s dim mirror illustration.

See, back in the day when he was writing, mirrors were made of polished bronze, not the silver-backed glass we know today. If a high enough polish was achieved, you could see yourself in that mirror, yes…but it wasn’t the sort of reflection we’re used to. The colors would have been off. The image would have been darker than reality. You could get an impression of yourself…but not an exact likeness.

My phone camera attempting to capture the sunrise has those exact problems. Too dark. The colors are off. The pictures I’m taking and sending to my family give an impression of the beauty, and for those not here, they see that impression and respond with, “Wow, gorgeous!” without ever realizing how much better the real thing was.

And that is exactly what this life is, compared to eternity.

We think it’s beautiful–and it is.

We think it’s bright and brilliant–and it is.

We think it’s bursting with goodness and light–and it is.

But all that it is, all that we see, all that we are capable of perceving, all that we understand and experience…it’s filtered through our very human senses. And much like my phone’s camera, our senses come with protective sensors that dial back the true Light to keep from blinding us.

We know from the stories of Moses having to shroud his face that our eyes just can’t handle the glory of God. And not just our eyes–our minds. Our hearts. We can accept portions of it, of Him–slivers of His goodness, His radiance, His glory. We get glimpses, and those glimpses are enough to make us gasp in appreciation, to prostrate ourselves before Him, to hold out our hands and lift up our hearts and cry out, “Glory to God in the highest!”

But Paul tells us that we’re only seeing in a old bronze mirror, dimly. Our understanding is dim. Our perception is dim. Our knowledge is dim.

And yet most of the time, we’re content with that. We’re happy with our dull imitation of glory, because even it is beautiful. 

But what if we set aside our phones? Our dim mirrors? What if, instead of staring at this imitation as if it’s all there is, we remind ourselves to look up? Look out at the world beyond what we can see? What if we look away from the reflection and to what is being reflected?

His glory will blind us, yes. But that isn’t a bad thing. I’m sure you’ve noticed that you can look at a rising sun in a way you can’t a noonday one…and I’m sure you’ve also noticed that when you look away, you see a lot of spots.

Isn’t that exactly what we should be doing with the Lord? Staring at Him until, when we look away, we see those impressions of His light wherever we turn our gaze.

His light, imposed over our darkness. His goodness, blotting out our shadows. His promise, there wherever we turn our eyes.

These mirrors that we live are always going to be dim, compared to the eternity where He lives. Perhaps it’s all we can handle, most of the time. But praise God that He invites us to look away. To look up. To bask in the light of His face, through the One who tore the veil between us and ushers us into that light-infused sanctuary.

I’m currently sitting in a rented beach house in Avon, North Carolina–one of my favorite places in the world. And one of our favorite things to do while we’re on vacation here in the Outer Banks is to watch the sunrise.

Now, in September, this is no great feat. The sun rises at a civilized 6:30ish, so we have plenty of time to get up and enjoy it (my husband and I usually wake up at 5:30, do our morning prayers together, and then go about our day). As we settled in our beachy routine, we remembered that last year, though we were down here for two weeks, there wasn’t a single day where we had a “perfect” sunrise. By which we mean a clear horizon over the water, some scattered clouds to catch the light and be painted with that gorgeous sunrise rainbow. Each and every day, there was a big ol’ cloud bank on the horizon that obscured the sun.

On Monday this year, I looked out the big east-facing windows of the house, saw a big ol’ cloudbank dumping rain somewhere out at sea (though it was perfectly clear here), and sighed. Still, we climbed the weathered wooden stairs up to the rooftop deck to watch what we could see of the sunrise.

As I was sitting there in my newly-purchased beach chair, looking out at that single storm cloud marring my idea of a perfect morning and reflecting on last year, I found myself praying, Lord, please give us a few good sunrises this year.

And then I sensed the Lord giving me one of those smiling shakes of the head, like we give our kiddos when they’re cute but oh-so-off-base. And a new prayer filled my heart instead:

Lord, I will receive whatever you give me. Help me to do so with open hands and an open heart.

With that prayer on my lips, the morning suddenly looked different. Instead of a selfish outlook that was utterly ridiculous when I stopped to think about it–why would something as large as weather be changed for a fleeting moment of pleasure for me? Not to say the Lord never gives us those gifts, but it struck me as so selfish a request in that moment–my eyes were opened to what He had already given.

If I wanted painted clouds, I had only to look away from that single storm cloud and watch the ones skuttling to the south wash rose and gold. If I wanted drama, I need look no further than the fire-limned edges of that big raincloud. If I wanted a reminder of His goodness, I had only to listen to the sounds of the ocean and the wind and the birds.

One of the reasons I love the beach is because every time I walk outside, no matter where I look, I see the bigness of the world around me, and it reminds me of the eternal vastness of our God. I love the mountains I live in, the beauty they show, but you can’t ever see as much sky as you can down here, nor, for that matter, so much land; the horizon is never a distant thing, it’s just the next ridgeline. I love that…but I love this too. Because as I stand on the shore where the waves lap at my feet or on a deck where I can see for miles, I know that I am such a small part of this world–no more to history than a grain of sand. A drop of water. And yet, as important as every grain of sand, every drop of water, because the Creator crafted me just so, just as He did this landscape that fills my soul with contentment.

When David and I went for our first walk the other day, I kept just sucking in a long breath and letting it back out with a sigh of pure bliss. Life with all its irritations and challenges continues even on vacation–I got attacked (ha) by a cactus the very first time we walked from the house toward the beach, I’m recovering from some congestion we brought back with us from Memphis last week, my inbox is overflowing with tasks I need to take care of. But being here helps me put it all in perspective.

Being here helps me open my hands, open my heart, and turn my face up to Heaven. Being here helps me set aside my own desires and expectations and instead just receive. Receive whatever the Lord wants to give me.

There will be good. There will be bad. There will be victories. There will be defeat. There will be smiles. There will be tears.

Because that, my friends, is life. There is suffering…and there is glory unlike anything we could imagine. We can get a glimpse of it in every sunrise…in every sunset. In every rainstorm…in every gust of wind. We can hear it in the song of the birds…and in our own hearts, when we quiet them enough to step back from ourselves, from our wants, from our desires, and listen instead for His whisper.

He has such wonderful gifts in store for us. Do we have the eyes to see them?