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You can’t rope a twister, you can’t catch lightning in a bottle and you can’t accurately reproduce a sunset.
I’ve spent a lot of time on the road back and forth to the hospital as my sweetheart recovers from knee surgery. I’ve had the opportunity to be on the road several times at sunset and sunrise.
Seems like I’m always driving into sun either way I’m going and this time of year that danged old fiery ball sets right on the roadway.
If there’s a shower out there on our thirsty landscape I’ve managed to drive right through the teeth of it lately. Most of the time you can see where it starts and ends and there’s not enough time to get the windshield wipers going good enough to clean the bugs off.
This time of year you’re going to get into lots of bugs — it’s just a fact. They are big juicy bugs that can block your view of a beautiful sunset in two or three bug strikes.
On my way home one night I could see a great Southwest sunset developing as I drove west toward Muleshoe. I didn’t have my SLR camera in the car but I did have an outstanding iPhone camera in my pocket. It works good in a pinch and my intention was to take the perfect sunset photo on my smartphone.
The wind farms came up just a little too early in the drive to frame up. I figured I could get through Muleshoe just in time to get the photo somewhere along the Kakawate Road.
My timing was just right and the sunset was truly glorious, but I never pulled the camera out of my pocket and I never stopped driving.
As the sky lit up with pink and orange on a cobalt blue palette and the clouds became outlined in silver, I reflected on all the times I’d framed up the perfect sunset somewhere on a lonely prairie only to be greatly disappointed with the printed reproduction.
I’ve managed some pretty darned good sunset images over the years but not even the best print has even compared to being there in the moment of that sunset. If your mind and soul are right it can be a closer moment with the Creator than can be had inside any church.
I needed that moment with God that evening and I wasn’t about to trade it for a photograph.
Based on what I’ve seen here on Earth, I think we have some really great sunrises and sunsets in store for us in heaven.
Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: