It was a nice evening; not windy or raining and I had the desire for a smoke. I hadn’t had one in a while, so I sat out on my back balcony that has a wonderful view of the mountains and lit a bowl. As I was enjoying my pipe, the smell and taste of tobacco, mulling over a problem in my mind, I noticed that two sections of the mountain face had become lit by the sun. Turning to my left, I saw a beautiful sunset underway. It was one of those moments that really takes you in; the different types of clouds, the contrast of colors between the sky, clouds, and mountains, the shades of orange, pink, and purple blending softly or brightly shining in one spot. I wanted to write something to capture the beauty. Why? Perhaps the thought came from a desire to share what I was feeling in that moment with others; to describe it in such a way that even though the reader wasn’t there with me, they could, in a way, experience it as well. So much I could say, almost too much, and why try? Many an artist better than me would be more apt at a description. I decided not to push myself to write something but to simply enjoy it. After a moment though, I found myself describing the scene out loud to myself: the colors the lighting how the clouds shifted and changed, the big billowing gray low lying ones in the foreground, the high streaky ones burning brightly with orange, the soft orange and pink colors on the smaller rolling bits above and then the differences between them and the mountains as well. Ah, so much beauty and so hard to describe with words. Saying so much felt disingenuous; words are but descriptors of what is going on in the moment, they can’t fully capture. It struck me then why we sometimes summarize such beautiful moments with a simple sentence, “the sunset was gorgeous”. This is an accurate statement, but there is a lot packed into that sentence. I thought of the common phrase “you just had to be there”. That rang true as well. A short, simple way to describe the sunset or a longer, more poetic attempt; in either case, neither can perfectly encapsulate the moment, they miss something. And it struck me then, how similar this experience is to our relationship with God. We can describe our creator, his attributes and character, but that is not all there is. We say God is love, but have we truly experienced that in ourselves? As misleading as the word may be, have we felt him; been in communion with him, sat with him, not physically but spiritually in our inward being, so to speak? C. S. Lewis had a great way of describing these two ways of interacting with God: contemplation and enjoyment. He got the concepts from Samuel Alexander, and it was a crucial part of how he understood his creator; both play a significant role in our relationship with him. Describing him and who he is and what he does, but also being with him, in him. We can share the contemplation part with others, but the enjoyment piece is left for us alone to experience personally. God, like a sunset, is something we can share but only in part. To fully know him, be present with him, experience his love and goodness, commune with him being to being, is only achievable on a one-to-one basis. I will continue to share what I have experienced, seen, and understood about my creator, and hopefully that is of some benefit to others. It will only go so far, though. To an extent, all I can really say about him is, like the short version of describing a sunset, “you just had to be there”.