I am remembering one of the best evenings I've had ever. Maybe it was because it had rained for two days. Maybe it was because I was tired and hungry from our church work day today but a wonderful euphoria set in on Marc Leverett at about 7:45 Central Time.
Carolyn and I joined her mom and dad and her sister and her husband for a sea food meal at a little back porch place called Nan's Seas. It's the kind of place where no one goes for the fancy atmosphere but for the absolute best and freshest sea food anywhere, period. I got the hungry man's fried shrimp, all 12 of them were big, breaded just right and cooked perfectly. The cocktail sauce was home made. I like really good sauces.
After the meal we went and just sat looking over Mobile Bay. I saw the glass-like water broken only now and then with a mullet jumping and landing on its side with a little slap of water. There were brown pelicans gliding two inches over the surface in a primal scene that has been the same for hundreds of years. The sky was alight with the fading hues of sunset, pink, vermilion, purple and blue. I could barely make out a rainbow on the right as the air is still heavy with vapor. It was beautiful. I had what could be called an epiphany. God nudged my heart and reminded me that life's most precious things have nothing to do with men or what men do.
Nature is a great equalizer. It is a binder to all hearts who can allow themselves to look at God by looking at what he has made and feeling small and large at the same time. It occurred to me that just about anybody else could sit with me on that sea wall and share the wonders of God’s creation as children of the same Father, with no strife, conflict or discord. The only music would be that of the laughing gulls. The only awareness would be this display of God's wonders. I began to long for heaven. Earth isn't heaven but sometimes heaven seems to visit for a time.
All of us on earth have way more in common than not when heaven visits. We may not agree on some things but I value my shared humanness with others more than to allow my disagreements to blind me to our eternal brotherhood.
Jesus taught us to love others, even our enemies, even those who mistreat us. When we love as we ought, we become conduits for the same kind of heaven-come-to-earth experience I enjoyed one blissful night on Mobile Bay.