On the Rising of the Sun

I got up early this morning to go to breakfast with a couple of my youth, for our usual Tuesday morning meeting. It was really cold outside, and all the windows on my truck were frozen over. There was a hard frost on the ground, and I looked like a dragon every time I exhaled because you could see my breath so easily.

I really enjoy cold mornings. I like walking to work in the still, cold air (thankfully it’s only about half a mile…if it was any more I probably wouldn’t enjoy it so much).

One of my favorite things about getting up early in the wintertime is watching the sun come up. I’ll be honest; I usually don’t get up early enough to watch the sunrise. However, on Tuesdays, I like to watch it come up as I drive to Chick-Fil-A or as I sit there eating breakfast.

There’s something special in a sunrise. It signals a new day. It’s a fresh start. It’s the light that chases away the darkness. It’s the warmth that overtakes the cold chill of night. It’s peaceful, but at the same time it’s powerful and majestic. Every day the sun comes up, right on schedule, to give light and warmth to the earth. It doesn’t matter how long, cold, and dark the night is. The sun is always just a few hours away.

As I sat there this morning with the guys, watching the sun come up over LaGrange, I was reminded of one of my favorite passages of Scripture. Lamentations 3:22-24 says:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”

I love that passage. And as I sit there looking at the sun coming up in the morning, I am reminded of the fact that God does the same thing. Even though we may feel like we’re in the pit of despair, God is faithful, and he will be there for us. His love never fails, and his mercies are new every morning. Every single day, God’s faithfulness is evident, just like the rising of the sun.

Sometimes we just don’t get up to notice it.