Billy Graham said, “Every day is a gift from God, no matter how old we are.” I think that’s a serious quote that we should all take note of. Isaiah 60:1 says, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” God wants us to rise each day full of his glory, ready to greet the new day with his love in our hearts. Just like we can count on the sun rising everyday, we can count on God’s faithfulness. The beauty of each sunrise shows us God’s greatness. As the sun’s rays spread across the sky, warming the earth as she wakes, we’re reminded of God’s light that guides us through the darkness.

Beautiful morning today. The blue sky is full of little white puffy clouds. I imagined Father Sky polka dotting the sky canvas with his white pastels, smudging the dots with his index finger making rows of button clouds. He and Mother Nature along with Old Man Winter have been fussing about the weather forecast for several days. Father Sky is trying to decide what kind of sky canvas sketches he needs to draw, Mother Nature is campaigning for a cold rain to fall from the heavens, and Old Man Winter is working on a freezing rain and snow scenario shutting down the world with a coating of ice. I prefer to sit in my warm den watching snowflakes fall that don’t cause any problems. The bamboo are holding court gathering together to shelter the birds and worrying about freezing rain covering their delicate slender leaves. Weather forecasting has come along way since we relied on clouds and winds and animals’ behavior to make weather predictions. We with arthritic bones are pretty good forecasters, too.

Bible scripture tells us God is in control of the weather as a demonstration of his power. In Jeremiah we read “when he thunders, the waters in the heavens are in turmoil, and he causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings the wind from his storehouses.” I love the thought of God storing the winds, calling them out at his bidding. Psalms says the “lightning and hail, snow and cloud, stormy wind execute his command.” The weather can be a blessing or a judgement. Sometimes I feel natural disasters are God’s wake up call to remind us to pray and get our lives in order. He places that glorious rainbow after storms to remind us of his grace and steadfast love. Heather Stillufsen writes, “Keep walking through the storm. Your rainbow is waiting on the other side.”

“The sun is a daily reminder that we too can rise again from the darkness, that we too can shine our own light.” — S. Mukherjee

The sky was so pretty at sunset but the clouds hid the pageant of sunset. Mother Nature stroked watercolors of blues and vanillas and golds across the horizon coloring a beautifully layered cloud curtain to hide the sunset. The sun rolled down the horizon holding the hand of Father Sky. Together they turned off the twilight and called the night forth in its quiet symphony. The waning crescent moon and his harem of stars took center stage behind a thick purple curtained night sky. The night wakes. The day sleeps.

Twilight is always a magical time to me, the earth glowing in a golden light, the remnants of the day’s love making with the sun’s light, silhouetting the old oaks and magnolias in jet black. Psalm 65:8 reads, “The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.” I think of twilight as the beginning of day’s death, a slow demise to darkness leading to the beauty of the awakening dawn and glorious sunrise of another day. God has given us so many wonders in this life. He had to consciously think of how to make the day’s ending and the day’s beginning wondrous. No artist has God’s palette of watercolors. We don’t need proof of the Lord, we can see it in his handiwork.

Psalm 113:3 reads, “From the rising of the sun until the going down of the same the Lord’s name is to be praised.” The sun comes up each morning as proof of God’s creation of earth. Each sunrise is a time of hope and renewal. Doesn’t matter what happened today, tomorrow is a gift of a new day, a new beginning full of hope. “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it,” Psalm 118:24.

Each day is a gift to be opened with prayers and thanksgiving. We should be gracious to God, thankful and happy for each day.

“Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.” — John Ruskin