SUNRISE

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I’m not by habit an early morning person, so if I catch a sunrise, I cannot help but stop, look, admire, wonder and rejoice.  Another day has begun. The world has woken from the dark and light is once more, with glorious colour, infusing the landscape, heralded in by bird song!   “The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.” (Psalm 65:8)

The other morning, there was no such sunrise. The light was dull and heavy clouds blocked the sun. The same gloom had descended on me as I a contemplated another day. Without warning, or permission, just outside my window a bird began to sing – not melodious but chirpy cheerful, not quiet but loud and incessant. A “song of joy” was being called forth, to quote the Psalm. I was faced with a choice.  Do I choose gloom, or do I too like this persistent, cheerful, chirpy bird choose to rejoice that I have been given a new day?

As the light increases and fills the whole sky, this day, this very day is a gift to begin again.  God, bless Him, is giving us all another day to discover, to play, to love, to work, to create, to lead, to help, to encourage, to eat, to make , to mend , to fix, to jump, to dance, to smile and to enjoy!

“Here you are,” the sunrise declares, “have another go!” I am so grateful for new beginnings, especially after some days – those that have been difficult, or scratchy. Days that have ended in tears where everything that could go wrong has gone wrong, or days you regret and waste. Then there are the nights when sleep has fled and anxious thoughts with taunting images fill the dark. Thank God, after such days and nights for dawn to break and sunrise to echo God’s words of hope. “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19)

 I took this photo of the sunrise on the first day of Alert Level 2, the day we as a nation began to fully emerge from lockdown to restart our work and our community life. We have entered a new day, an opportunity to ‘try again’ to live well, with one another and with God.

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.
 They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness. -  Lamentations 3:22-23

I wonder, what shall we do with our new day?

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