Sky on earth

… that title came to my mind when I was out photographing this kind of unspectactular scene. This day, I had not made it to the sunset with a view. I had taken my camera with me in hopes that I would find something – anything – worth photographing. So while my head was aching with the sinusitis I was curing, I figured that I would not make it to my favourite sunset spot, and not even to the blossoming cherrytrees at the riverside. All I found myself able to do was walking over to the riverbank and listening to the soothing sound of the waves licking at the pier… and with it, I started to look at my surroundings in an unconventional way.

Suddenly, this sunbeam burst into my feverish haze: A title for the photo I was just shooting! Sky on earth… isn’t sky on earth a strong bit like heaven on earth? In the midst of our downtrodden everyday routine, when we can’t even muster the strength to look up to the sky… while there might be an instagram sunset somewhere around, but we just cannot seem to go for it… All we can do is to have our eyes open just where we are with a desperate willingness to find some beauty, some goodness right where we are.

And by grace, our eyes fall on the ugly puddle at our feet. By grace, the seeking heart finds. By grace the window opens, and we find a reflection of heaven right here where we are... and by grace we enter into the otherwordly hope that unfolds before us. As far away as the clouds are above us… and yet we see them in this puddle at our feet.

For me, these clouds in a puddle became a heaven-on-earth moment. A reminder that „as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love“ for me... and for all „those who fear him“ (Psalm 103,11)