Ate breakfast on the porch this morning sitting in the swing, drinking my coffee, surveying my little world, watching my songbirds and butterflies enjoy the sunshine of the waking day. The morning has a soft wind chime symphony and a few cicada solos. The male cardinals are so red they are almost fluorescent. I know their mates think they’re wonderfully handsome. The purple finch sitting on the bird bath is as dark pink as a round ripe raspberry. Mr. Downy Woodpecker is contentedly hanging upside down on the suet basket eating his breakfast. “God’s in his heaven. All’s right with the world,” Robert Browning.

It’s so pretty outside, azure blue sky, lots of fluffy cotton ball clouds, bleached white on their rounded tops, light gray on their bottoms blushed with rain. The cigar smoke clouds did their best to overcast the blue sky canvas but the sun just kept burning off the thin smokey clouds. A beautiful southern summer day.

“The day is done; and slowly from the scene the stooping sun upgathers his spent shafts, and puts them back into his golden quiver!,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I love this quote but I feel the sun is female with her life giving warmth.

I’ve fallen in love again, with the day’s tranquil twilight. Never seen it more beautiful than tonight. As I perched in the swing, I watched the sun slip below the horizon, listening as the twilight whispered words of love to the earth and brought the stars and the moon out from their hiding places. Twilight is always a magical time, 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. The cicadas tune their musical instruments, loudly then softly, and coax the little lightning bugs out from under their leaf covers to be stars in the darkness of the horizon. The muted colors of twilight are so pretty and the earth is still and silent, getting ready for slumber and dreams of God’s magnificent sunrise. Henry Ward Beecher says, “Twilight drops her curtain down and pins it with a star.” The diamond broaches are pinned in the deep purple heavens surrounding the luminious moon. The darker the night, the brighter the stars.

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. We don’t need proof of the Lord, we can see it in his colorful 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.

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 and as the sun’s rays spread across the sky we’re reminded of God’s light that guides us through the darkness.

Psalm 118:24 reads, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Billy Graham writes, “Every day is a gift from God, no matter how old we are.” We should be gracious to God, thankful and happy for each new day. Each day is a gift to be opened with prayers and thanksgiving. Love the life you live.

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