It is good to give thanks to the Lord,

     to sing praises to your name, O Most High;

to declare your steadfast love in the morning,

     and your faithfulness by night,

to the music of the lute and the harp,

     to the melody of the lyre.

For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;

     at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

                                                - Psalm 92: 1-4

 

Every morning I go for a long walk. I generally use this time to pray and to reflect on next Sunday's sermon. I walk early enough that, during these shorter days of winter, most of my walk is in darkness. When I start out, it is always as dark as midnight. In the course of the walk the eastern sky gradually lightens. Only in the last few minutes of my time outside does the sun push over the horizon - sometimes as a blazing ball of red, sometimes as a darkly yellow disk behind grey clouds.

 

Winter in California is not nearly the time of quiet withdraw that I found it to be during my years living in New England. Even here, though, with so many trees bare and the fall's leaves still piled on the ground growing soggy with rain, there is a stillness during this time of year, a sense of nature resting. At the same time, with the hills growing greener with each successive week, there is also a sense of new growth.

 

I have been particularly struck this last month with how much beauty there is during the dark hours just before daybreak this time of year. Especially stunning are the moments immediately preceding sunrise. There have been a number of days in recent weeks when the grass in the park that I walk across has been covered by frost, for example. As the first light of the sun appears, the thin dusting of crystals turns suddenly into a brilliant silvery carpet. Muddy rain puddles left over from recent storms are transformed into shimmering pools, and the few red leaves still clinging to the trees are remade into tiny, iridescent stained-glass windows. Everywhere the magnificence of God's world shines forth. This is true all the time of course, but there are those special moments when we have the grace to see it.

 

I pray during these cool and rainy weeks of Winter, as January gives way to February, that you too may find time to delight in God's wonderful world!

 

Peace and grace,

Ernie +