Sunrises

For my birthday earlier this month, my friend Christy gave me a daily devotional book called Jesus Calling. It sits on my counter and every morning, W and I read the paragraph or two that helps us kick start our day. The devotionals are from God’s perspective and usually speak to exactly what we need to hear on any given day ~ very cool like that!
For April 29th, the passage reads…

“The dawning of each new day is a gift from Me, not to be taken for granted. The earth is vibrantly alive with My blessings, giving vivid testimony to My Presence. If you slow down your pace of life, you can find me anywhere.”

Nearly every morning for the past couple of months, W leaves the house for work in the dark so that he can time getting to Bayshore Blvd. by sunrise. He takes the time to park his car and capture amazing photos of the sun just peeking from the horizon and whether it’s overcast or clear skies, the images are beautiful. He then emails them to a growing number of people who are offered an opportunity to appreciate their beauty, too.

This was yesterdays sunrise over Tampa Bay. Stunning, isn’t it? W has noted that on most mornings, there is a boot camp exercise class wrapping up about the same time he’s snapping pictures and not one of the people take an extra few minutes to take in the scenery. They’re packing up their water bottles and chatting to one another while walking to their cars and miss the entire evolution from dark to light. They miss the gift.

I have time in my day to appreciate a sunrise or a sunset or springtime weather or even the amazing lightning storm we had on Sunday night. I sat right there on my lanai Sunday, taking it all in…watching the conservation area behind my house be illuminated like it was high noon on a summer day, feeling the spray of the rain, hearing the rolling thunder…and feeling His presence. How can we deny any of those vivid testimonies to His presence? I stand in awe. Thank you, my husband, for taking time to capture the dawning day and appreciating its beauty.