Sunrise

We're getting close to the time change, which means that it's getting darker and darker each week as I drive to work. On Mondays I commute from my parents' house to Columbus and have a nice hour of highway to listen to the radio and think.

Today was an especially beautiful morning. At 6:30 a.m. when I left it was cool, still, and a little overcast, with the sun just starting to peek over the horizon. As I traveled the back roads towards the highway I could see that the sunrise was bright red ("red sky in morning, sailors take warning") through the trees. I was hoping to get a good glimpse of it - it would have been a spectacular photograph - but no matter which way I turned it was behind something. Trees, houses, cornfields, they all blocked my view.

Once I got on the highway, which has an elevated vantage point of the valley my town is in, I could finally see the sunrise - but only in my left mirror. While it was gorgeous backwards and closer than it may appear, it wasn't the same as seeing it straight on. And despite how much I wanted to see it, I had to drive in the opposite direction.

As time passes the sun rises higher and I can see in my mirror that the sunrise is getting even more beautiful. By a quarter to seven it's gotten much lighter and I notice that some of the clouds I can see through my front windows are slightly pink. The clouds blush deeper and deeper as I drive, and by 7:10 when I reach the exit I use as a landmark to make sure I'm on time, almost all of them look like strawberry cotton candy. I felt like the sunrise had been chasing me, and finally had caught up to where I was and engulfed me so that everywhere I looked was sunrise. It was awesome.

I started thinking that this is how God works sometimes. We see Him in the distance, and think about how cool it would be to be near Him, but go our own direction anyway. We keep going the way we think we should go, and see Him in our rearview mirror - keeping an eye on where He is - but don't turn around. And the best part? Even when we don't turn around, He still follows us and envelops us right when we need it.

I had a Christian radio station playing, and one of them played the song "Light Up the Sky" by The Afters, which felt monumentally appropriate for my morning commute:

"You light, light, light up the sky
You light up the sky to show me
That You are with me

So I run straight to Your arms
You're the bright and morning Sun
To show Your love
There's nothing You won't do"