Sunrise Reflections

I am watching night turn to day, and the peachy / pink coloring of the sky is absolutely beautiful.  The trees have lost their leaves.  On this cold winter day, they stand like naked sentinels. 

There is something beautiful about trees at anytime of year, but in the Winter it is as if they whisper a promise.  I do not really like Winter.  It is cold.  The trees are my friends, and their endurance gives me courage.  They speak of the nakedness of a season.  Gethsemane was like this.  So was Calvary and the tomb experience. 

There are no leaves to soften what you see...nothing is hidden.  Gethsemane, Calvary, and the tomb are like this--aloneness and acceptance of not my will but thine be done are full of this.  It is a season for endurance.  There is beauty in endurance.  Some of our finest moments come through endurance.  The splendor of our weaknesses, with no leaves to soften what you see, witness to our humanity. 

Each season has its beauty and its lessons.  I am grateful for a time that lets me contemplate trees!  Observe life.  Listen to the lessons.  Extract joy from what seems cold and barren.

I remember as a child washing dishes--there were tons of dishes for a family a eight, and  I would stand at the sink in every season, looking out the window.  I observed the trees, flowers, weeds, the weather.  I loved it all even then.  No matter the season, it spoke to me.  Washing dishes was a quiet escape in a busy, noisy house.  Washing dishes was a way of restoring harmony from the chaos of cooking.  It met a need in my spirit.

This morning, I see again how quickly the sunrise fades, and I feel catapulted into the day.  This quiet interlude of communion with the season and its trees whispers to me of God's unfailing love no matter the season of my life.

There is order and harmony to be found for a child washing dishes who longed for harmony or as an adult who lingers with sunrise reflections of the trees.  Praise God.