Last fall, my husband and I doubled up for an off-road four wheeler ride into the hills  not long before dusk. We took a rugged side trail right near the top into the woods, my husband deftly steering around the trees and limbs and undergrowth. Watching it grow dark beyond the maze of trees, he assured me the trail would come out soon onto the ridge. When it did, the evening was dark, and the trail led steeply down the side of a hill through a stutter of trees and stumps in a forgotten route. My breath caught in trepidation of rapid descent and in awe at the same time because the view was simply stunning. The retiring sun blazed living orange through the silhouette of trees, shining its last rays over the shadow of Lake Crescent far below us.

Upon returning that night, I happened on a haunting and wildly beautiful song, "Spaceship", by LeAnn Rimes. The lines were thought-provoking, especially after the incredible display in the sky from an undeniable Creator. In the song she says, "Hey, God, why don't you take me home?... I'm waiting on my spaceship to come...Got to be an infinite amount of room up there in the stowaway...Yeah, it's my life, I have a say..." This song wrung my soul with its melodic beauty and reflective sadness because she's talking to God about His heaven, but waiting for a spaceship with a suppositious ticket to take her away. In the music there is anger and pain, but strange hopefulness, somewhat like spectating at shadow boxing where the participant truly believes they have a physical opponent. The singer stated it was to "just have a moment of having it out with God. After all, it’s the only way for all of us to get back to living our lives. There's a lot of hope in the anger of this song, because anger can drive us out of hopelessness."

While anger is a motivator, it drives more like a vehicle with imbalanced tires, vibrating and shaking with any increasing speed. In this life, troubles will always pummel the soil of our hearts, ever eroding hope that is not rooted deeply, shaking us to the core when we realize our finiteness.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

Sunrises and sunsets shout God’s name too loudly to be waiting for a spaceship to come. There are no online tickets to reserve a spot in heaven, and there are not enough good deeds to outweigh the sin nature innate in all of us. What better time than now to be a messenger of hope about a place in heaven only secured because of Jesus, the guilty debt of ours He paid on the cross, and His interceding for us to God. One thing we all know is that we only have one life to live, the length of which we know not. God’s power and beauty is seen in His creation. His love is written on the palms of Jesus, and spoken on the pages of the book breathed out by Him. Our moments here are held in His hand.

Luke 2:10 “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people…”