I went on my healthy yet guilt-driven walk/run last night. Man oh man, was it beautiful. After jogging around a loop in an undeveloped subdivision down the street, I just layed on the asphalt and marveled at the night.
The stars were standing out- shimmering and twinkling so brilliantly. The toads were singing, um croaking, their sweet melodies in the tall grass around me. I was stilled by the awe of it all and quite mesmerized. The peace. The freedom. The wildness and wonder of nature and creation.
It reminded me of a certain part in The Shack (that horribly controversial book that has absolutely changed, no improved, the way I see God).
" 'But enough of that for now. Let's get lost again in the starry night.' In the silence that followed, Mack simply lay still allowing the immensity of space and scattered light to dwarf him, letting his perceptions be captured by starlight and the thought that everything was about him, about the human race, that all of this was all for us. After what seemed like a long time, it was Jesus who broke into the quiet. 'I'll never get tired of looking at this. The wonder of it all- the wastefulness of creation, as one of our brothers has called it. So elegant, so full of longing and beauty even now.'
'You know,' Mack responded, suddenly struck by the absurdity of the situation; where he was, the person next to him. 'Sometimes you sound so, I mean, here I am lying next to God Almighty and you really sound so...'
'Human?' Jesus offered. 'But ugly.'
And with that He began to chuckle, quietly and restrained at first, but after a couple of snorts, laughter simply started tumbling out. It was infectious and Mack found himself swept along from somewhere deep inside. He had not laughed from down there in a long time. Jesus reached over and hugged him, shaking from His own spasms of mirth, and Mack felt more clean and alive and well since...well he couldn't remember since when."
