Sky on Fire

It’s slow, yet all of a sudden. 

One minute the sky is full of light, and its surroundings reflect its fullness. A blue horizon highlights white clouds and green trees. Everything is bright, fresh, three-dimensional, straightforward.

The next minute, a shift takes place. Your heart senses it before your retina translates the transition taking place before you. The atmosphere is suddenly tinted. A pinkish hue now highlights everything. Those clouds, skies, and trees; their color scheme begins to change.  

You blink for a millisecond, and it appears even pinker.

You turn your focus, and the return glance shocks you with its purply richness.

You stare transfixed, and even then you can literally see the unfolding palette.

Pink and purple mature into orange. Orange develops into red. 

The sky is suddenly on fire. 

Every surface around you is saturated with a new shade. Objects grow more complex with the waning light’s watercolor brushstroke. 

It is the same landscape, yet somehow very different. 

And it’s breathtakingly beautiful.

This is parenthood.

This is childhood.

This is time ablaze.

This is watching our little ones in those precious few fast-paced minutes right before we realize they are no longer little ones.

As the sun sets on adolescence, every minute feels like a fraction of a second. You can take mental snapshots and try to hold onto the glowing horizon, but all too soon the colors fade. Night falls and with it our resolve.

But we must remember what comes next. 

A spectacular star-filled sky. An illuminating full moon. Fireflies against darkened trees. 

Light, simply in a new form. Colors of a new array.

The same landscape, just in a new season.

And it’s breathtakingly beautiful.

For this is the day the Lord has made, for this is the time we have been given, and we must soak up the sunshine, pause for the sunset, and marvel at the night sky.

Copyright © 2026, All rights reserved.