What a welcome sight it was to see the sun yesterday! After five days of rain and mist, sleet and drizzle and low gray skies, it was just plum refreshing to see that clear sunrise breaking out behind the buildings downtown.

Even though I know I shouldn’t let something as ordinary as weather shape my moods and form my thoughts, it’s a challenge to not get caught up in the low down of dreary weather, isn’t it? Seems easy enough to let my thinking get drug down into the wet matted leaves lining the gutters on the streets. Four days of freezing rain and sleet… and then follow that up with a Monday?! Mercy goodness, just how much is a man expected to stand?!

Well, I reckon I did manage to not let myself get pulled down below ground level. I did exert enough self-will and deliberate focus to be able to give thanks for a few good things. Actually, for a great many things. And, I was able to do that without feeling too hypocritical. And, facts be stated, getting a couple of inches of rain here in southern Kansas was a mighty good thing. We’ve been through a bit of a dry spell.

Whether dry spell, rainy, floods or droughts, I’ve just about always enjoyed a good sunrise. There’s something of promise and optimism, goodness and grace in a day’s starting with that renewed hope of a dawning sun. Seeing the sky change from dark to faint gray, watching the growing glow of pink on the horizon, the occasional crimson backlighting a few low clouds, well, I just love that.

And so it was that my heart felt lighter and the promise of the day seemed brighter when I saw that glorious dawning of clear skies and beaming sun yesterday morning. But it is also true that every day seems brighter when I start it off with a reminder of how much I am loved, how much I am blessed, how much good is given, how many opportunities I have to do good.

Yes, it is a fine thing to begin the day the Lord has made with a rising sun in the eastern sky. But my absolutely best days begin whenever I focus on the risen Son illuminating the least reaches of my heart.

H. Arnett
12/2/15