New Every Morning

 My grandma was a morning person.  She loved being up at the crack of a new day, smiling with coffee in hand.  Typically a person doesn't know the morning routines of others all that well, but when you spend the night with your grandma more times than you can count, you learn her habits well.  These were never more interesting than when we would spend an annual family vacation together at a beach house.  She would be sure to sneak out onto the upper deck and enjoy all the quiet of creation before the loud awakened. 

One of these vacation days she said, "You should have seen the sunrise this morning! Wow!"

It peeked my curiosity and I asked what time the sun had come up.  It was a couple hours before my preteen self would dream of getting out of bed, especially in summer, on vacation, but thankfully, after she realized I'd not watched a sunrise over the ocean before, she talked me into it. 

I'm forever grateful that she did.

The next morning, she nugged me awake, and with reluctant eagerness, I joined her.  It didn't take long for me to see why she treasured this ritual.  The quiet. The beautiful quiet.  The light tap of the waves on the shore, not even a bird ready to sing.  Sometimes you could spot an early walker tacking a mile or two to their routine, but mostly it was open canvas.  Just us and the ocean.  The first morning was a little cloudy. The sun was as slow to awaken as I had been.  The crack across the sky was like a heavy eye, stunned with the realization it needed to open.  The clouds tucking over, like warm covers, temping the sun to sleep in.  

"Oh you usually can see it better, the clouds are blocking it today." grandma said.

I still awaited in expectation.  Slowly, the sun peered through the clouds, showing up to restore the order of life.  The clouds cleared a little, but the show had not been at its prime performance, thus grandma talked me into another early morning to try again. At this point, I was hooked.  I had to see the full production.

The next morning, we repeated.  We took our balcony seats, dressed in our finest pajamas and fanciful bed heads, we waited.  This morning, the same lap of the ocean hummed like a warming symphony at the start of a stunning masterpiece.  The stillness of life unfolded before us, and there a cloudless sky lay bare.  There we sat, quietly anticipating a breathless wonder.  In the peace, a crack crossed the horizon, infinite power, life sustaining warmth, breached the darkness.  The sun entered.  Center stage.

A symphony of silence, greeted with the joy of morning songs met me there.  I was enthralled.  The beauty truly is new every morning. I was speechless.

In Lamentations 2:22-23 it states:  

22)The Lord’s loving-kindnesses indeed never cease,For His compassions never fail.23) They are new every morning;Great is Your faithfulness.

The daily rise of the sun is the first reminder we have that God not only sustains physical life,  but He gives new strength to those who rely on him.  Some days are extremely hard.  Some days are simply simple.  

Some days the clouds of trouble try to snuff out the beauty of God's love, but each day, he is there.  Each day he invites us to seek him and know him. 

Psalms 105:4 " Seek the Lord and His strength: Seek His face continually."

I have witnessed many sunrises since that week at the beach so many years ago.  Each one is truly different.  Each one is a reminder of God's unending access to all who call on him.  People often ask me how I go thru our circumstances.  I won't lie, there are horrible storm cloud kind of days that  I don't understand.  But in every day, there is unending peace.  Untapped energy in the God I love.  In my savior, Jesus Christ.  His mercies unfold in my soul despite the forcasted outcomes.  He offers his peace and I accept.  

I pray you have accepted him.  I pray, that just like the urging of my grandma for me to just come watch one sunrise, you will just come and see.  I promise once you get a taste, you will know HE is GOOD.

"Oh taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him."-Psalm 34:8

-Melissa Pyle