I rarely delve into “deep” things, such as politics or religion since those things tend to be very personal and very polarizing. However, occasionally something will strike me as so special, that I feel compelled to share my thoughts . I’m aware that not everyone may share my point of view and will disagree with some of my conclusions. But if you’re open to new perspectives, another point of view that might make you go “hmmm” then please continue reading and let me know what you think.
Today started earlier that normal. I woke up after only one snooze push, brushed my teeth, grabbed my bags and hopped in my car for a 5 hour drive to New York . Three hundred miles of highway with nothing in the car but my Dunkin Donuts Vanilla Chai, my iPod, and my thoughts. It might help to know that I’ve always been a “nature” girl. When younger, I would go on hikes with my dad, and would revel in the awesomeness and beauty of the mountains. I have never seen a sky quite as beautiful as when I was falling asleep at 10,000 feet on top of Mt. Baden Powell. And that’s even with the rocks poking through the sleeping bag.
I hop onto the highway around 8AM and start the trek. It’s fall and the leaves have started to turn. With every passing 50 miles, the trees become more vibrant and more colorful. Sometime after crossing into Pennsylvania, it looks like the leaves are brighter, crisper. It’s as if the air miles away from the city is cleaner and therefore makes the colors sparkle and everything look cleaner than in the polluted, smoggy air of the city. The drive is beautiful.
I reach the crest of my first hill and start winding down. Spread out in the valley before me is one of the most beautiful scenes on earth. A small town is nestled in the valley, surrounded with a circle of hills that are covered in trees with blends of dark green, yellow, deep orange, light orange, red, and some very dark browns. There are fields that are side by side in different shades of colors, first green, then the yellow of the corn fields that have already given their corn, then the browns of the fields that have just been tilled, with the fresh, dark dirt in stark contrast with the bright colors surrounding them. Just past the fields is a red, brick church with two white steeples jutting out from the landscape. It’s a breath-taking scene, and in that moment, driving on Interstate 81, I truly appreciate God’s presence on earth. For how could such beauty come from randomness? The scene was perfect, and all perfection is godly. Something so beautiful, so perfect, so mesmerizing, so lovely, fits my description of heaven on earth.
And here’s the thing that really made me pause. At that moment, as I’m gazing at the scene in front of me, all those people in that town are completely oblivious to the fact that they are standing in, living in, drinking coffee in, waking up in, what I would call heaven on earth. Regardless of whether they realize it or if they choose to admit it – they were in a type of heaven.
How many of us live our lives not looking at the big picture? How infrequently do we think about what the world around us looks like from another perspective? How many times has someone looked out the window of an airplane, down onto our cities, towns, homes, and thought, “Wow.” And at those times, when someone looks at us and is struck by the beauty of the scene that lays before them, the scene that we are a part of – you, me, we all, are a part of. Maybe we’ve found, just had a taste, of heaven on earth.
