Smog in my Coffee
My life, Monday through Friday, involves a sunrise, a panoramic view of each new day’s beginning. It’s nothing glamorous or earth shaking, I drive a school bus, so with a little diesel, a few sleepy hellos mixed with beautiful little souls that ‘do mornings’, I set off to start each day.
Many years ago my science teacher led his class of curious young scholars to discover that oxygen was not air, oxygen was in the air along with many substances, but not everything we draw into our lungs is oxygen. This knowledgable gentleman added that it was the molecules of other airborne substances in earth’s atmosphere that made day break and dusk so colorful. With some help from the class clown/smart aleck and my own ability to reason, I discerned that it was pollution painting the morning sky and the saddest part of this is that I will never see pure sunlight, as I have no interest in space travel. Since this occasion of great scientific revelation I have had a slightly twisted opinion of daybreak. My constant mental question is, “Am I seeing life giving beauty or deadly toxins?” The answer determines my right to gasp in wonder or cringe in fear. Yes, this is my mind behind my every blink.
But….. days ago I was listening to two young boys quietly laugh and giggle. My route turned toward the east. There were wispy clouds on the horizon, geese were taking flight for their annual pilgrimage to warmer climates, various fur babies were about their morning constitutions, the world was breathing, pulsing with life, and all dressed up with treetops silhouetted against a radiant realm of variegated oranges and yellows. A peace overwhelmed me and God’s voice spoke. “Gretchen, it’s time you flip your filter.”
A filter is a purification system, a refining agent that sifts away harmful things leaving something clear and clean. Somewhere along the way, mine got turned around. Every ray of sunshine reminded me of a world full of dirt and decay, destruction and devastation. This is not God’s desire.
I looked at the bugs on the windshield in sadness knowing they were a great distraction to my perspective but I gazed further through the sky. I knew beyond the blue, stars, muted by the sun’s great brilliance, filled deep space and further still there was infinity, a facet of God alone that I cannot fathom, yet in His loving kindness He controls and keeps in perfect balance and in His untarnished judgement all is secure.
Sing to the LORD, you saints of His; praise His Holy name.
For His anger lasts only a moment,
But His favor lasts a lifetime;
Weeping may remain for a night,
But JOY comes in the morning.
Psalm 30:5
It does not matter what is between me and the sun, it is the sun and it determines the continuation of life on earth because God made it so. When He is ready to change things He will. It has occurred to me recently that some of those molecules I worry so much about smell really good, like fresh baked cinnamon rolls or my mother’s perfume. So, I will Praise the Name of Jesus, see beauty rather than filth and worship Him as all creation was designed to do. He does not ask me to save the world, He asks me to love and let Him do The God stuff.
Literally smelling the Roses,
Gretchen