Silhouettes Against a Gorgeous Valley

So, in the movie Pride and Prejudice, there is this scene where Elizabeth Bennet is standing at the top of this cliff. The camera pans out to reveal her silhouette against this gorgeous valley and the piano music surges and flourishes as she stands there and breathes in its beauty.

I was listening to the movie soundtrack on my way home from Colorado yesterday, and I realized that there are so many moments in my life where I feel like Eliza Bennet on top of that cliff. These are the moments when I discover that I am a small, yet significant silhouette on the horizon of God's beauty and greatness. This filled me with wonder as I cracked a huge smile and tears of gratitude and humility slid down my cheeks.

The last five days of my life have been packed with moments such as these. Though I feel like I've been to Colorado about a zillion times on trips to visit family, everything about this particular trip was so new and raw. It seems we went pretty much every where I had never gone before - Maroon Bells, Independence Pass, Aspen, Salida, Noah's Ark. These are all places I couldn't have possibly comprehended without experiencing them with every sense in my body. I found myself thinking that there couldn't be anything more beautiful. That's when I knew that I couldn't be more wrong. These experiences confirmed that there is so much more beauty to the world that I haven't experienced, which made me realize that there is so much more to God that I don't even know. It's more than incredible how God designed us to be enamored and overwhelmed by each tiny piece of ground revealed to us in our journey back to Eden.

I also happened to be reading this book called Searching for God Knows What. Donald Miller successfully blew my mind in a chapter called, Naked: Why Nudity is the Point. In it, he points out how huge and beautiful Eden must have been, and how we can't possibly compare its beauty to any other natural wonder. Beyond the landscape, he talked about how Adam and Eve lived in a constant state of vulnerability and trust before God; their lives were in perfect sync with God's desire for a tangible relationship with them. Can you imagine being so comfortable around someone that you were constantly naked around them? Their unabashed nakedness is the perfect symbol of their beautiful relationship with God. Reading this chapter made me intensely aware of my desire to be in Eden. The idea of a relationship with God so constant, unashamed, and free is the reason why Eden is so beautiful. It makes me so happy to know that Jesus died to reclaim that kind of beauty for me.

So, basically, all of these beautiful places in Colorado were reminders to me that there is so much more that I have yet to experience in life. They're breathtaking, but they pale in comparison to the physical beauty of Eden. In the same way, the silhouette moments of my life are only going to get better as I grow in my relationship with Jesus. That's so exciting because there is so much to the Holy Spirit that I have yet to know or experience. Knowing that God will always have more beauty for me to take in is intensely amazing.