He paints the sky

As I drove into work this morning, the sunrise painted an absolute masterpiece across the canvas of sky that sprawled before me. The dark midnight blue surrounded by the violets and indigos as it lightened into the reds, pinks and oranges before seeing the golden yellow of the sun. The clouds appeared as little wisps of the artist's brush or quick daubs to make the puffy clouds and to add depth. 

As I beheld this beauty, I was taken back to almost 25 years ago. I attended a non-denominational church then that had a very large college and career group. Part of that reason was we had folks come in from a great number of churches in the area for our Monday night services. Through this, I was able to meet a young man named Tyson.

To know Tyson was to love him. He had that type of personality you were drawn to. But outside of knowing him "at church", I knew nothing about him. Didn't know where he was from, where he had went to school, you know, the facts. Then came that fateful day when we all learned a lot about Tyson.

It was LaborDay weekend, and I cannot remember if it was 2001 or 2002, possibly even 2003. The church that Tyson attended, he wasn't a member where I attended only came for the Monday night services, decided to head down to Florida. If it was Gulf Shores, Panama City, Pensacola I don't recall but I do remember all of the stories that came from the trip. 

Tyson and our friend Greg had set out during the night on Saturday to drive down ahead of everyone else. With Greg driving, Tyson fell asleep in the passenger seat. As the morning awakened, Greg was startled by a loud exclamation from the previously sleeping Tyson. As he took in the beauty of the sunrise, he just kept exclaiming how God had created all of that (the sunrise over the ocean) just for him. As someone that had been to the beach numerous times, Greg just gave him the "Yeah, yeah" with a head shake but Tyson would not be deterred in his exclamation. What he said next kind of stunned Greg.

"I was an atheist.  I told everyone that there was no God.  Yet He called me and saved me. He made all of this just for me." In that moment, Greg began to understand the exclamation and excitement. It was his first time to ever make a trip to the beach. Sadly, it was also his last. 

On that Sunday afternoon, as the group was splashing in the waters, Tyson got into a rip current. Having never been to the beach before, coupled with not being a strong swimmer, he was quickly taken under by the current. The hours that followed were agonizing, not only for those there at the beach with him trying to assist in the search and rescue efforts, but also for those of us back home that loved him and cared for him. 

We (the Planet Rockers) made our way to an area of the church which was still under construction/renovation. Since it was Sunday and the church was hosting an evangelism conference, we didn't have many options to gather in as a large group that wasn't being occupied as part of the conference. I can recall as we walked into that construction area with looks of defeat, mourning and fear written across our faces which were marred by tears. The timid whispered words as we all began to pray for our friend to be found quickly crescendoed into a roar. Whispered words were replaced by loud, anguished cries for Tyson to live and not die.

Time seemed to stand still as we cried out and prayed for his safe return. Suddenly, one of the girls in our group began coughing uncontrollably and reacting as if she couldn't breathe. Right after that, a guy close by her began to have what appeared to be salt water come from his nose. This caused us to pray even harder, believing that he was fighting to make it to the surface to expell the water from his lungs. 

The hours passed by and we reached a point where the "pastors" over our group told us to go on home, there wasn't anything else to be done. With heavy hearts and no updates, we left to go our separate ways to spend a sleepless night wondering. Around 10am on Monday, each of us received a recorded call with a number and pin to enter into a conference call at a specific time to get an update from the beach. Anticipation mixed with dread is the only way to describe the hours leading up to the time to make that call. 

As one by one each of us dialed into the call and entered the "chat" reserved for us, we took a quick roll call to ensure everyone was on the call that should be. Within a few minutes, we began to hear the voice of one of the beach patrol agents that had taken part in the search for Tyson. He told us of how his body had been discovered that morning and that he was gone without going into many details or graphics, but we all had our own visualizations in our mind.

It was in the days following this that we began to see how God had painted all of this for Tyson. From the sunrise to his sunset, there was not a moment where God had not ordained every detail. Let's be realistic, a body in the water especially overnight is going to have some "damage" to it in some way. If that is soft tissue damage where creatures nibbled or cuts, scrapes and bruises from slamming into the bottom as he got slammed in the current. When they found him, he was behind a sand dune on the beach and looked as if he had laid down there to go to sleep. 

That became an irony that he was described in that manner. The Sunday evening of when he went missing,  a Sr pastor at the church I attended had a dream. It was a running joke that this pastor dreamed in technicolor and that popcorn was popped to go to bed because dreams were so vivid. But in this particular dream, Jesus was once again walking on the water, but He was carrying something. As He got closer and closer to the shore, you could make out that it was a male that He was carrying. Describing what she saw in this dream, she described Tyson to a T, from his hair color and style to eye color. But she had never met him or even seen him to know what he looked like. But as Jesus continued onto the beach carrying Tyson in His arms, she said that He carried him and laid him behind a sand dune as if he were sleeping, sat with him for a while until the morning came and then left him there to be found.  That still gives me chills thinking about that to this day. 

What was shared by family at the funeral service was what the searchers that located the body had said to them: when they found him, he appeared to be sleeping. There were no signs of distress on his body in any way as if something had protected him. Makes you think doesn't it?

What was even more amazing was the way that his pastor described Tyson. Remember when he was in awe of God's sunrise because he had been an atheist?  Well, after he found out that Jesus was real and that He had sacrificed Himself on a cross for him you couldn't stop Tyson. He ran hard in his pursuit of God. As his preacher shared that day, he said it was as if God and Tyson had been playing a game of tag. God tagged Tyson and ran on ahead, then Tyson ran after Him. As this continued, the day got short. Looking back, God said to him "Looks like we're closer to my house than yours so come on home with me." 

I can't say that any of this is how it really happened because I am not God and I am not Tyson. But I can remember the day when Tyson saw the beauty in the painting of the sky and was in awe of the Artist's work.