Anyone who knows me (and probably anyone reading this blog) knows that I love sunsets. They are my favorite thing in nature. I love them no matter where they are, though I have a very special place in my heart when they happen to be over an ocean. In my life I have seen some particularly amazing ones.

On the rooftop deck of a small hotel in Florence.

A year later at Michaelangelo’s Point also in Florence.

San Francisco, San Diego, and Ireland

New York City

    \

The bush in the Limpopo Province of South Africa

Sunset Beach / Table Mountain in Capetown South Africa

And I even got to fly right into one in an airplane

To me, the sunset is God. It is His personal artwork done new every day. Never the same two days in a row. Never the same for different people even when standing right next to each other. Each one has its own colors, patterns, passions. Each one brings a different emotion, a sense of peace, a sense of being wrapped in the greatest gift of life. Being wrapped warmly in the glow of God’s love and grace. The light of the world dancing on everything it touches. Throwing its patterns and life even in the darkest shadows.

Recently, I posted on a social media site about a  great day with the hash tag #livinginthesunset. Someone said to me “what does that even mean?” Well, let me tell you.

Living in the sunset is fully living in the world God has placed me in. It means giving all of me to join the dance of God’s light in the world – letting that light shine from deep within me and letting it touch everywhere it can reach. Even the darkest shadows. It means walking every great day, every bad day, and every day in between warmly held in the glow of God’s great love for me and His totally undeserved, unwarranted, unmerited grace. Living thankful for the blessings and the challenges — thankful for each and every color that blends together to create this journey I get to walk.

It means knowing God, praising God, serving God, and thanking God through my actions for every moment of my life because I was fearfully and wonderfully made just as each new day is — and each new sunset is. It means living this life knowing I am God’s favorite. How could I not be – He creates a new and glorious masterpiece for me each and every day.