The world in all its beauty today is glorious. Psalm 19:1 states, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Sat on the porch several different times today and each time I had another magnificent spring watercolor painting to enjoy. The birds are crooning their hymns of praise and I think of the church hymn, For the Beauty of the Earth. I hear the words as the songbirds sing — “For the beauty of the earth, For the glory of the skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies. Lord of all to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise.”

The morning was visibly overcast like a melted bowl of vanilla ice cream. I love gazing skyward and discovering all the different colors swirled in the ice cream sky. I could see violet, silver, lavender, robin’s egg blue, and pearl shades in the clouds as they travelled together on their path through the heavens.

Mother Nature burst the sun through the heavens at lunchtime, heating up the earth with the sun’s life giving warmth. Father Sky had to grab his pastels and redraw his clouds, sketching white puffy clouds with pewter bellies to replace the overcast collection he drew earlier. The sun kissed the clouds on their crowns and the day was beautiful in its celestial dance.

At day’s end the earth’s gentle caress of dusk embraced the setting sun in her glistening golden gown that shimmered across the horizon. “Softly the evening came with the sunset,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I love this times of day — the magical misty shadows of the gloaming, the gentle quiet that comes over the world, the muted chattering of the songbirds, the gentle breezes rustling the old oak’s leaves, the cool air of the approaching darkness. I’m perched in the porch swing watching the day bed down and the night awaken. The night waking with its luminous moon and twinkling stars is a thing of beauty, too.

Psalm 113:3 reads, “From the sunrise in the east to the sunset in the west, may the name of the Lord be praised.” I watched the day pass, marveling in its spring beauty and I counted my blessings that God created the light of day and the darkness of night. God is light but we can see him in the darkness of night. God’s holy light shines through the darkness and lights our way. Psalm 139:12 states, “Even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.” The night doesn’t hide God. Even when our trials seem dismal, God can see clearly. God brings light into the darkness.

“In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.” — Francis Bacon