Earth Rotating To the Sun, aka Sunrise

This morning I watched Earth rotate towards the sun, otherwise known as sunrise.  I watched Earth play peekaboo with the sun.  I described the scene in my mind while I walked.  I imagined writing about the sunrise, but explaining that I know that isn’t actually what is happening.  The sun is not rising over the mountains.  The earth is spinning, so we can see the sun again.  Instead of explaining I know the difference.  I decided to write an accurate narrative.

This morning while I ran and walked around my neighborhood, I watched Earth spin towards the sun.  It spun steadily.  I imagined it was weary of the dark and was ready to see light again.  Before any signs of the sun’s rays shot through the sky, the birds sang the light into existence.  My biologist daughter told me one reason the birds sing before we can see the sun is because they are up in the trees, or the sky, and they can see the sun before we can.  They sing and chant with all their might letting everyone else know the sun is still there.  We will all see it soon.  Pink rays streaked across the sky, swords made of magenta colored clouds, advertising the sun wasn’t far off.  A bit more rotation and the pink swords were joined by an army of swords cutting through the grey sky.

For a while, my journey took me up the hill facing west.  The morning changes were happening behind me.  I reached the top of the hill and turned to go home.  I felt like I was face to face with the sun.  It shone straight ahead of me.  There was a burst of yellow light seemingly sitting behind the clouds.  The clouds helped it dissipate like yellow dye in spilled milk.  The pinks and oranges circled it, a halo of watercolors.  I marveled that it resembled the sun reflecting on the ocean.  A few ripples in the sky and I might have thought I was upside down and on the coast.  

A moment later, I realized the sun and clouds played a trick on me.  What I thought was the sun sitting behind the clouds, glowing through them was actually the reflection of the sun on the clouds.  It was still beyond my sight.  The earth hadn’t quite finished its rotation to fully reveal the sun from its hiding place.  A bit more rotation and the crescent edge of the sun peeked over the blue mountains.  I attempted to name the actual shade of blue, but it seems no one on the internet can agree on the names of the different blue hues.  The mountains are either navy blue, cornflower blue, space blue or deep sea blue.  The reflection of the sun was bright and beautiful.  When the actual sun came into view, it changed everything.

The oranges and pinks immediately disappeared.  It was only the yellow sun and the light blue sky.  I could no longer gaze at it.  I had to glance quickly and keep my eyes moving, and this was only a fraction of the sun causing this change.  Once I finally looked away, I kept seeing small yellow suns along the path I walked.  The world was dim and lacking color after the radiance of the morning meeting with the sun.  

As I write these words, I can see the lesson, the thing the sun teaches us.  A reflection of something, a copy of something, a shadow of something, does not come near to the reality of that something.  I think of reflections in water.  They are not near as beautiful or clear as in a mirror, or face to face.  An image, even taken with the best camera, rarely comes close to the beauty we see with our own eyes.  A virtual anything is not as grand as the real thing.  

It also reminds me of Elijah in the cave.  He asked to see God.  All he got was a shadow, a whisper, and it was too much.  Moses could only see the burning bush.  God showed up to people in a number of ways, they were all reflections.  We cannot look upon Him.  We could not behold his grandeur.  All of nature, all of humanity has the stamp of God upon it.  The universe and the sun are a reflection of him.  If I cannot look upon the sun, how much more is the glory and beauty of God?  The sun transforms Earth.  It takes away the darkness of night.  It awakens the birds.  It shares its energy with the plants.  It fills the souls of the people.  This thing, this Sun does all this, and it was created by one greater than it.  

I’ve tried to give this moment words, there aren’t enough, or they don’t exist.  I can only see a reflection that assures me the real thing is beyond my comprehension, my understanding, and my ability to begin to fathom.

Welcome Sun!  Welcome to this new day.  Thank you for the reminder that there is much more happening here than we can see.