Can’t remember the last time I watched the sun rise, guess it was when I was driving to work in Alexander City in 2021. I’d leave around 4:30 AM and I’d see the sun awaken the day each morning before I got to work. The sunrise colors are so glorious. The sun rises in the early morning darkness setting an orange crown of warmth and light over the earth. I love the names of the colors from a paint chart titled sunrise — lipstick, clementine, pomegranate, spice, French navy, fuchsia purple, cinnabar, bouquet.

My cousin captured that paint chart in her photo of the sunrise in her back yard over the water of Lake Apopka in Florida. My blogging friend in Minnesota captured a beautiful sunrise in the cold morning air on one of his morning wanderings. I studied these wondrous photos from opposite parts of the United States and immediately in my mind heard the song Morning Has Broken sung by Cat Stevens. The words are beautiful, first published as a hymn in 1931, the words written by English author Eleanor Farjeon. Read the words as a prayer for the springtime waking now and imagine Adam and Eve as they witness God’s sunrise and sunset for the first time.

Here are the words of the song — “Morning has broken like the first morning. Blackbird has spoken like the first bird. Praise for the singing, praise for the morning. Praise for them springing fresh from the world. Sweet the rains now fall, sunlit from Heaven like the first dewfall on the first grass. Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden sprung in completeness where His feet pass. Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning born of the one light, Eden saw play. Praise with elation, praise every morning God’s recreation of the new day. Morning has broken like the first morning. Blackbird has spoken like the first bird. Praise for the singing, praise for the morning, praise for them springing fresh from the world.” I love the imagery of these words.

Spring makes us think of hope and rebirth as the land begins its greening in spring. “For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land,” Song of Solomon 2:11-12.

In spring the weather warms, the flowers bloom, the animals give birth. All are reminders of the truth and beauty that exists in our world. Each day we are given is another day full of God’s mercy and blessings. Isaiah 61:11 reads, “For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.”

Praise God for this wonderful world we live in and thank him for the beauty of the coming spring.

“Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love!” — Sitting Bull