New Again

It happened again today! And I was there, an eyewitness to the whole thing. Melanie Safka called it the birth of a baby day. The writer of Psalm 19 said that it is like a man striding forth from his honeymoon bedroom. Though I have witnessed this event thousands of times, in many locales, it still moves something deep inside of me and never fails to fill me with wonder and awe.

This morning it happened on the east coast of Florida. The eastern sky was just beginning to lighten when I began my morning walk. I deliberately headed for an open field where I could see and experience all of the coming splendor. Finally in place, I faced east and waited. Overhead, the contrails behind the jet liners were a brilliant silver for they were already catching the light. I watched and I watched and all of a sudden, there it was. The corona of the rising sun, a sliver on the horizon, rising ever higher until I could no longer look it directly in the face. So, I then turned and faced west and watched the light of a new day gloriously bathe the landscape that lay before me.

As I began to walk, I noticed my shadow. With the sun so low in the sky, my shadow was fifty yards long. But it grew ever shorter the higher the sun rose in the sky. In that moment my mind turned to Proverbs 4:18, “But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.”

At seventy-three years of age, I have witnessed many sunrises. But the most incredible dawn in my life was the day that I was born again nearly fifty-three years ago. Though I do not know the hour or the day, one day I am going to experience the full day that began with that dawning in January 1972. And when my full day arrives with the sun shining in all of its brilliance high over my head, my High Noon, so to speak, I will join my Savior forever. And in the moment that I see Him, I will be like Him because I will see Him just as He is (I John 3:2).

Maybe you can’t understand why it is that I am so moved every time that I watch a baby day be born. And again, maybe you can. For each dawn holds with it infinite promise of a day that is not yet covered with my fingerprints. You see, I am still trying to get the hang of this, this walking with Jesus thing. And hopefully, I’ll do it better today than I did yesterday. That’s the opportunity that every sunrise holds out to me.