Painting a Panorama

"For the creation is eagerly awaiting the revelation of God's children." Romans 8:19

Going across the Linn Cove Viaduct is a pleasure only intensified in fall. This engineering marvel begun in 1979 was finally finished in 1987. It positions a road hung onto the side of the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina. Down below is a deep gorge, often called the East's Grand Canyon. One of the most complicated bridges ever built, its view below stuns even the jaded fall foliage connoisseur as the shimmering yellow and rusty orange leaves paint a panoramic view. I don't know which inspires me more, the drop-off level or the magnificent colors. One is our heavenly father's creation and one is man's ingenuity. When both come together we have a marriage of beauty and practicality.

The bridge completed the final section of the Blue Ridge Parkway which meanders through the Blue Ridge Mountains. It's one of those drives most people put on their bucket list for seeing fall beauty. As one drives over the viaduct he or she has the sensation of being suspended in air. Somehow the engineers who constructed this bridge have suspended gravity as the 1,243 foot bridge snakes around Grandfather Mountain. What an awesome creation.

In the above passage from Romans we sense the excitement as the Apostle Paul states how God's creation, all his hills, mountains, seas, plains, meadows are eager for a new earth. The woodland animals, jungle creatures and marine beings hold their breath as they wait for the Messiah's return. They seem to comprehend even more than us humans the shortness of life with its death and decay. As we humans spend time focusing on our daily "to do" list, we miss the beauty of life today as well as the jaw-dropping magnificence of the return of our Lord. More than the beauty of this season, the creation knows that there is a greater season to come.

As we rejoice in the change of seasons, let's not forget the final season still to come. His return will reduce the glowing colors of autumn and the amazing structures of men to a child's paint-by-numbers picture and a Legos structure that will soon be put back in its box.

That is what the Scriptures mean when it says, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." 1 Corinthians 2:9

It is a reminder of our stunning future.

Copyright © 2012 Carol G. Stratton, used by permission.