As Sure As The Sunrise
In a world of perpetual change, there is one constant every morning. You wake up tired. You need the jolt that comes from the first cup of coffee. As part of the circadian rhythm, your body temperature reaches its lowest point in the morning, usually around 4 a.m., then rises throughout the day. Your body’s stress hormone, cortisol, increases as you wake up, after having been suppressed during the night by melatonin, your sleep regulating hormone.
While all those might be true, I am thinking of something else, something even more constant. You might not always be able to see this event, but it happens every day, regardless of what day of the week it is or whether is it spring, summer, fall, or winter. It happens whether you are awake or asleep. Nothing stops it, nothing speeds it up or slows it down. Sometimes people even wake up early just to witness this event. That constant event … the sunrise.
Technically speaking, although the sun appears to rise from the horizon, it is actually the motion of the earth that causes the sun to appear. And astronomically speaking, sunrise only lasts for a brief instant; that moment in time when the upper edge of the sun’s disk (called its upper limb) appears tangent to the horizon. While sunlight is actually a blending of all colors, as it is low on the horizon and travels through the atmosphere, the shorter wavelength colors (blues and violets) get scattered out, leaving more of the longer wavelength colors like yellow, orange, and red, which are then reflected off clouds and other particles, creating a beautiful sunrise.
Who doesn’t like to watch the sun rise in the morning? To see the sun pop up over the horizon is always such a beautiful sight. When the sun comes up a new day is dawning. A fresh start. Yesterday is in the history books and tomorrow is still another sunrise away. So, don’t let the troubles from yesterday or the worries about what may or may not happen tomorrow steal the beauty and joy of today. Ask God to provide all that you need for today. Accept what He gives you as your “food” for today. See Exodus 16 to read about how the Israelites were grumbling to Moses and Aaron about what they perceived as a lack of food as they journeyed to Sinai, and how the Lord responded to them.
In the Lord’s Prayer, when Jesus teaches us these words, “Give us today our daily bread,” He is telling us that we should pray for our needs and not our greeds. Jesus taught this in the context of the workers of that day often being paid one day at a time, so they truly knew the meaning of living hand to mouth.
And in the third chapter of Lamentations we find these words – “The LORD‘s unfailing love and mercy still continue, Fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise.The LORD is all I have, and so in him I put my hope. The LORD is good to everyone who trusts in him” (22-25).
Lamentations is a series of expressions of grief (laments) regarding the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. I believe the heart of this book is found in those four verses, challenging us to be devoted to hope in the Lord, standing strong amid a crumbling world around us.
Dear Father, we look to You today as our Provider for all that we need today. I will have faith that today’s bread is all that I need today and that tomorrow You will give me that day’s bread. Thank you for being my Loving Father, a love that is as sure as the sunrise. Amen
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