My part of the world is not as clear as it normally is and there is nothing I can do about it.

I’ve heard people talk about having cataracts. They say that everything looks a little cloudy or muted, that colours are not as vibrant. 

I find that to be true when I wear sunglasses. If I’ve worn them for a while while driving, sometimes I need to pull them down to see what things really look like, if conditions have changed since I put my sunglasses on. I may not have noticed that the sun is no longer as glaring as it had been.

In some ways you miss out when you are wearing sunglasses. You don’t see the world in all its explosive glory.

I get that we need to protect our eyes from the rays of the sun and, frankly, sometimes the sun is just too bright.

I remember when I worked for a delivery company years ago. There was one day a week that I began my day at 7:30 am, travelling east on the 401 to Oshawa. In the summer months, at that time the sun was rising above the horizon. 

Traveling on the highway was dangerous without sunglasses. 

First there was the intense, yellow ball of fire that was shining straight in your face like one giant high beam headlight. It was so intense you could barely look at it. 

It was blinding.

But then there was its glare on everything else – other vehicles, the road, any flat surface. 

It was hard to see the lines on the road. It was easy to mistake where the cars around you were. 

I had to be so careful during those trips. I remember that on those days, I couldn’t afford to forget my sunglasses. 

But that is not the case right now in my area.

For the last week or so, the world famous sunsets at Sauble Beach have been rather mediocre.

Usually you never go a day or two without seeing some kind of spectacular sunset over Lake Huron. 

When I scroll through the photos I’ve taken over the years, there are large portions with bright, rich, jaw-dropping sequences of colour that flash by as I scroll.

They are my sunset photos and I have a ton of them … because almost every night I can snap some pics of a sunset I’ve never seen before. 

Now, however, there have been some fires in Northern Ontario. Though we don’t notice much in the daytime, at night, around sunset, the sun is not as bright. 

It’s like the sky has cataracts and its colours are muted – like in the 80’s when pastels were in. 

The rich oranges, pinks, blues and purples have been replaced with softer versions that kind of fade as the sun goes down. 

They are not transforming the sky like they normally do.

Here’s the thing: Our world has been muted over the last year or so. It has not been the same. We all feel like it’s temporary, this muted world of ours. We don’t know when it will end, nor does it seem to be coming to a close really soon. There doesn’t seem to be much we can do. There is one thing, however, and that is to turn to the Bible. The Bible can clear away the particles in our world that keep it muted. God’s word can give you a clear picture of what is to come and how to prepare. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What part of your life seems muted to you right now? Leave your comments and questions below.

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