THANX | 03- Good Morning

"Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days."~Psalm 90:14

Seems like every morning these last few weeks I've been privileged to some of the most beautiful sunrises. It's like living in a painting. This isn't huge or profound, it may just be a trifle, but I enjoyed it and told God so.

Thank you Lord for my eyesight and for the glory of Your creation and for quiet moments when I can use my senses to take in nature's beauty. 

If you're like most people, and need to get to work by 8 or 9, there's probably sometime between 7 and when you enter through the door at your job when you can just take a few seconds to look around. Take a deep breath, smell the air, feel the morning on your skin. 

Sure, it would be great to have 20 minutes of exercise, or a half an hour to an hour of prayer and meditation, or just 15 minutes alone to clear your mind. All those are wonderful ideas, but let's face it- not many of us manage to squeeze these in. But all of us can take a moment, somewhere between 15 and 90 seconds to experience morning outdoors. 

I'm probably more blessed than many since I live in rural Iowa. I may see deer, pheasants, wild turkeys, migrating geese and constantly changing colors in the farm fields and trees on my morning commute. Yet I still get wrapped up in planning for the day ahead or reviewing the night before or listening to the car radio. Sometimes the only time I take to appreciate the morning is the moment between the parking lot and my classroom door. But what a moment.

In Summer, I feel the warmth and smell cut grass. In Fall there's a crisp, dry air and that smell of leaves or harvest. Obviously in winter it's the chill and the clean, snow-filtered air and bright light that bounces off of all things white. Spring may be the best, there's a moisture and either mud or new growth on trees and emerging flowers.

But of course, even if you're driving and just get a glimpse out your windshield, the best part of morning is the sunrise. Whether it's the orange on the horizon, gradually giving way to dusty blue of late October, or a narrow strip of violet or indigo leading in to a gradation of blues from deep to cyan in January, or the radiant pinks and magentas or golds that seem to saturate a ceiling of stratus clouds any time of year. There's just nothing like a sunrise.

Enjoy one soon and thank God for the morning, nature, and eyes and senses to experience it with.