Your life is a gift, a grace that must be earned and appreciated. Many people step out of their ordinary life, when they can, to experience something or somewhere different from their norm. As your years go by, how can you weave together so many unique experiences? Do your special experiences seem disconnected from your everyday life?

The Sundowner understands the need for context and chooses this theme: all earthly life ends as the sun seems to end each day as it sets in the west. He or she selects a place (an environment) to watch the sunset at every opportunity. Enjoy the sunset alone, with interesting people or a special someone, over great food and drink, in an exotic land, at a local al fresco restaurant or from your backyard deck. Wherever you are, have been, or choose to be, the sun has set or will set to signal the end of your day.

Watch the mood change as orange and red hues frame the reddish ball of the sun, especially if there are high clouds in the west. Have you heard the saying, “Red skies at night, a sailor’s delight?” At sea, a working sailor (seaman) sails much longer than an 8 to 5 day, partly because the sea batters ships and boats to pieces, and ships must be regularly repaired, maintained and upgraded to keep up. sailing conditions. Another reason: work fills the endless hours of floating on the water while confined to a small space. With the crew exhausted from dinner, a good captain allows his sailors to enjoy the sunset (unless they are on watch).

The science behind the delight of a red sunset is that the sun’s rays bounce off dust in the atmosphere, which means that a high pressure system (calm air) can rock sailors to sleep in their hammocks. Jesus commented on the setting sun. Web search Matthew 16:2-3.

I have seen a painting depicting the “Last Supper”, in which Jesus celebrated the first day of the Jewish holiday of Passover with his 12 disciples in the city of Jerusalem. Several disciples who shared that final meal with him recorded what they saw and what he said. The painting shows windows in the second-story room, but I can’t find any description of Jesus watching the sunset as he dined with his disciples and told them shocking things about the near future.

The Sundowner would agree that it should be there, for the setting sun marked the setting of the mortal life of the son of God. Jesus shared the bread and wine with those who had followed him in his ministry, and linked (gave context) to his sacrifice pending the meal so that they would remember what he had taught them as they began their own ministries in the days to come. . There would be no Christian religion and Jesus’ sacrifice would have been in vain for all of us if the 11 surviving disciples had not remembered the context of what they were taught and directed the creation of the Christian Church. Jesus, as a mortal, rose as the setting sun at his crucifixion. Then, three days later, he defeated death to resurrect and receive from God all authority over Heaven and Earth. Web search Matthew 28: 1-20.