I woke up at 6:08 this morning and peeked out the window to see if dearest friend was still with us. She told me goodbye when we went to bed, planning to leave early morning for Alexander City to pick up her dog Charlie Brown from the boarders. I looked out the window at 6:30 and she had gone. We had a wonderful trip to Florida, watching the roughhousing waves and the storm clouds in their beautiful watercolored blues and purples and grays. The sun poked her rays out a few times on our trip turning the ocean a polished pewter. So beautiful with the sun’s reflection kissing the water. We didn’t let the weather deter us. We happily sat out on the beach with gale force wind gusts throwing little sand daggers at us. I’ll never forget these days of laughter.

Today the earth is happy. I am happy, perched in my porch swing, on my little slice of southern heaven. I hope y’all are happy. The sun is hot and bright. The sky is blue and clear. The songbirds are happy in their morning symphonies. Penelope is napping in her playpen. Kat is sunbathing on the bannister, planning her next torturous move. A woodpecker is drilling on the old oak, his staccato drum beats sounding like a telegraph machine’s Morse code. I wonder what his message is.

The life giving warmth of the sun is hot today. That big old ball of gas in the sky is powerful. Almost blistered my arms sitting in the swing this afternoon. I was inspired by nature’s beauty and started thinking about how the sun and the sky can represent life. The sun perpetuates the cycle of life, giving life but needing rain to sustain that life. The morning’s dawn brings light and the eternal renewal of day. The setting sun brings the end of day, symbolizing death, a transition into darkness. Psalm 113:3 reads, “From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!”

We are the sky, full of sunshine days of happiness, purple cloudy days of sadness and grief. When clouds and storms fill our lives we know the sunlight is resting just behind the clouds. We wait and pray till our faith lifts the clouds and the sunlight of God’s grace lights our darkness. Every living thing gravitates to the warmth of the sun. Watch a patch of sunflowers on a sunny summer day and you’ll see the power of the sun as the blooms follow the warmth. My grandchildren were fascinated watching the sunflowers follow the sun last summer.

Our lives can rebound after disappointments or a storm of grief. Just as a rainbow needs rain and sunshine to prance out after a storm and arch hug the horizon, we need cloudy days to give us a new perspective to appreciate all our days decorated with sunny blue skies. When we learn to weather life’s storms through our faithful prayers, believing God is standing near, we realize we can once again have the happiness of sunny blue skies. Just as the sun rises each day we are reminded that we can all rise from the darkness.

As we all walk through life I hope the warmth of the sun on our faces will be a reminder of God’s love.

“Keep the warmth of the sun in your heart.” — Robert Muller