Sure enough, at 4:30 a.m. this morning, my eyes popped awake. (When I wake up, I wake up. No groggy stuff. Groggy hits at 3:00 p.m.) After a few moments of stumbling around in the darkness to get dressed, I slid open our squeaky deck screen to step outside and enjoy the sunrise (yes, I had to wait a bit).
The sounds of the morning are almost deafening! The frogs and the birds are singing a chorus. The caw-caw of the crows and the lowing of the cattle punctuate each verse. The gentle breeze from the east chills me. The red-winged blackbirds hover over the tall pasture grass, likely watching over their nests, and a lonely turkey calls from the field below.
I love my sleep. I crave crawling in bed at night and sometimes don't want to leave in the morning. Yet it is morning, and there is so much
Sitting out here in this noisy quiet, I contemplate how often it is God waking me up, shaking my shoulders, saying,"Wake up! You have to see this!" And our God doesn't just wake us from physical sleep. Sometimes He wakes us from spiritual sleep, from our somnambulant life of errands, jobs, and housework in order to show us His majesty.
While to you, sitting out on the deck waiting for the sun to rise might seem like a waste of good sleep, it focuses me on God's presence and God's presents, and I am content.
