It was night.
I stood on the sandy shore of a beach in Georgia listening to waves I couldn’t see crash on to one another in an effort to aid the rising tide. There was no moon that night, no sliver of reflective light to separate sky from water. I was standing in a dark globe of wind and water, unable to distinguish the line where water meets sky. But for the brilliant array of stars, it might have been a wall nothing in front of me, the edge of the earth where I could step into space.
A briny wind blew in from the water, and the darkness pressed down on me in that way that makes one feel small and utterly insignificant in the presence of such a vast, wild force. There was nearly a feeling of claustrophobia, the way the darkness pressed in around me though everything was deep and unmeasurably open in front of me. Unfathomable ocean depths, innumerable stars and grains of sand, untamable force of night and waves.
A briny wind blew in from the water, and the darkness pressed down on me in that way that makes one feel small and utterly insignificant in the presence of such a vast, wild force. There was nearly a feeling of claustrophobia, the way the darkness pressed in around me though everything was deep and unmeasurably open in front of me. Unfathomable ocean depths, innumerable stars and grains of sand, untamable force of night and waves.
And yet all must bend in complete submission to the Creator.
At His words, water swirls and crashes or stills and stops. It reaches only so far inland because He tells it where to stop.
We can’t capture it.
But He owns it.
I stood on the shore, wind whipping my hair and filling it with salty moisture that clung to my skin while the words to Rich Mullins’ song, “Calling Out Your Name,” cycled through my mind on a loop:
From the place where morning gathers
You can look sometimes forever ’til you see
What time may never know
What time may never know
How the Lord takes by its corners this old world
And shakes us forward and shakes us free
To run wild with the hope
To run wild with the hope
You can look sometimes forever ’til you see
What time may never know
What time may never know
How the Lord takes by its corners this old world
And shakes us forward and shakes us free
To run wild with the hope
To run wild with the hope
On the way home from that trip to the beach, I bemoaned the fact that I lived so far from the beauty of the night sky over the ocean. But when we began clipping through the flat farmland near our home, I spotted a storm rolling in across the plains. From a distance, we watched the sky darken and pulse with thunder and lightning. It was a symphony of dangerous beauty, and I was struck at the way it showcased the glory of its Creator.
Still, Rich’s song looped through my head:
I feel thunder in the sky
I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name
I see the sky about to rain
And I hear the prairies calling out Your name
A few days later, I watched a spectacular sunset fill the evening sky with colors and streaks of gold that Van Gogh would have wished to master.
“It’s true,” I thought. “Every sky is a masterpiece. Every sky calls out the name of God. We can’t tame it, but He owns it all.”
Whether I’m traveling or sitting on my back patio watching my kids play, I often pause to take notice of the sky. It isn’t hard to see the glory of God on display with each cloud, every smear of evening lavender, each streak of lightning, each dark and starry night. Each sky is an invitation to take notice, each upward glance an opportunity to see the greatness of our Creator. I often wish I could be standing on that dark beach, but it doesn’t really matter if my feet are planted in the sand or standing squarely in my backyard.
Because every sky calls out His name.
“Every Sky” is the first track from my new album Hold Me Fast. You can purchase it wherever you buy music online (iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp).
In anticipation of the album release, we asked Facebook fans to submit their favorite “Every Sky” photos from all over the world. We sifted through hundreds of beautiful photos in order to come up with this video.
This is part one in series of posts telling the story behind each song my on my album, Hold Me Fast.
