Our One Attachment

Good morning…

“Every morning God paints a different sunrise,” my friend texted me a Jon Piper quote on the day we were leaving the beach as she was arriving. “He never gets tired of doing it again and again. But then it struck me. No, he doesn’t do it again and again. He never stops doing it.”

“The sun is always rising somewhere in the world,” Piper explains. “God guides the sun twenty-four hours every day and paints sunrises at every moment, century after century without one second of respite, and never grows weary or less thrilled with the work of his hands. Even when cloud cover keeps man from seeing it, God is painting spectacular sunrises above the clouds.”

“God does not intend for us to look at the world he has made and feel nothing,” Piper concludes. “When the psalmist says, ‘The heavens declare the glory of God’ (Ps. 19:1), he does not mean this only for the clarification of theology. He means it for the exultation of our souls.”

“I absolutely love this!” I texted back. “God is always rising the sun somewhere and always setting it somewhere. Our Creator is also rising the moon and setting it too. I guess my soul’s response is this: ‘Love this moment.’ Just as ‘right now’ is coming into view, it is also beginning to set from sight.”

“Love this moment,” and at the same time, “Don’t get too attached to it.” I added, “Why get too attached to the way things are? Feelings. People. Each life phase. All are gradually being transformed. Our only enduring attachment is to the God who is orchestrating everything, moment by moment, day after day, century by century.”

The celestial realms announce God’s glory;
    the skies testify of His hands’ great work.
Each day pours out more of their sayings;
    each night, more to hear and more to learn.
Inaudible words are their manner of speech,
    and silence, their means to convey.
Yet from here to the ends of the earth, their voices have gone out;
    the whole world can hear what they say (Psalm 19:1-4a, VOICE).