“There just ain’t no tellin’,” my Texas granddad used to say,
“what- you’re- gonna-see, in what it is you’re goin’-ta see.”
That tongue-twisting phrase popped into mind on Tuesday’s gray sky afternoon. Maybe for you, too, a first glance at gray skies brings thoughts of, “darn, the weather’s changing.” Or “huh, no artist would get out their paints for that; no photographer would run for their camera.”
But then, as you might have found within your own gray-sky afternoon “of a sudden,” something catches your eye. And in surprise, you see, differently.
On my “gray-sky” drive, that was it: suddenly, I saw differently! My un-looking eyes caught large billows of dry-sage gray, then small ripple formations of poplar bark gray. Streaks of sword-gray seemed lancing through dapple-gray sheets; lead-gray pillars rose above a dark sea-gray lake. And arches of gray-fox gray reached above pearl-gray pillows.
Then more! Across the top of the Sawtooth Ridge, then out over the lake, then down to the far horizon toward the Apostle Islands were streaks, shafts, and rounded bolsters in multiple hues of subdued tawny golds: caramel, and flaxen, and dijon mustard, and autumn’s tamarack gold.
That gray-sky drive became a wonderment, a miracle of noticing a tiny glimpse of the gift of Creation.
Right there, ready to be seen. And that, in turn, turned what had seemed to be a glum-foreboding into an eye-widening delight; and a wide shoulder spot meant pulling over, simply to see. And then from a deep, satisfying breath came an exhale, releasing weight-of-world worries. And then it seemed I heard the range-rough voice of my long since dead Texas granddad:
“There just ain’t no tellin’, what-it-is-you’re gonna-see, in what it is you’re goin’-ta see.”
Oh, we humans! So ready to see the downside, and the worry side. So ready to be headed into a glum afternoon, thinking of gray as drab dullness. Yet all the while, the Miracle of Creation, gift wrapped by Creator, pours colors and hues and shades swirling all-round.
Taking our eyes off what we “think” we are seeing, we can see what we are being given to see: Unexpected Beauty! Kindness of God! Presence of Awe! Wonders to Behold! In the small sample of smile-making moments, we begin to find: “what we expect to see, ain’t what we’re able to see.”
Psalm 90, in the Bible, gives us words to match the wonder: “Lord…Before the mountains were brought forth, or the land and the earth were born, from age to age, you are our Refuge.”
Our Refuge, in colors, in unexpected hues, in mixes that surprise…
Ah! …the teacher that is Creation, formed by Creator, lets us see: Life is ever-changing. Nothing stays as we define it. We, who would stare into a gray-sky afternoon, and moan about what lacks, can be led to discover! Then begin to see that what we’re being shown, is being given us to See: Creator deeply. Creation. Beauty. Seen! And once seen, given us to Share. Outward, inward, skyward, earthbound, and especially, toward neighbors known, unknown. Beauty, Seen!
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month our contributor is Pastor Kris Garey, Trinity Lutheran Church, Hovland.
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