The Sun Always Rises

Over the course of the past year the day-to-day routine has seemed more like a grind than ever before. We have been told to cover our faces and stay away from others. While the short-term benefits of such may have been well-intentioned, the long-term impact is something I fear will be something some will never get over.

The past year had to gone on though. We learned to adapt to do things we had to do every day just so things could seem as normal as possible. It was all the same but in a different way. Despite moving on in the best way we could, looking back, some things seem lost.

In this last, lost year, we lost friends and family, and because of fear, we could not grieve them as we normally would. How hard will that piece of being mortal, just being human, be to get back? We lost some civility during the past year, didn't we? We already had greatly squandered this commodity, mostly on politics, so losing more of it was something we should have really considered. We tested friendships over whether or not to wear masks. Was it a loss of freedom to have to wear a mask? Some seemed more than willing to report some one to the authorities over not wearing a mask than they were to report an actual crime.

Now and then I would see something that reminded me that not all is lost.

Working from home one recent morning, my day started with helping Jennifer and Hannah get out the door for work and school. After the rush-rush of that hour finished, I stood at the living room window. A moment later, I saw Jennifer's car, with the two of them inside, pull up to our street to leave. As they turned out of our driveway, my eyes followed them, There as the car drove away from our house, I noticed they were driving into a spectacular sunrise.

With a right turn onto another street, they disappeared from my sight. I could only keep looking at the sky. I opened the front door stepping onto our porch just so I could get a better glimpse of the view before my eyes. Maybe, I was outside in an attempt to get a bit closer to the source.

No matter how the past year has unfolded, it unfolded as it always has in some ways. One day always followed another day. One distinct season always followed another distinct season. Each morning, sunrise came, whether hidden behind clouds or unobstructed in front of a blue sky. Each evening, sunset came, cloudy or otherwise.

In all the bickering, vitriol, anger, and confusion our world seems to sink deeper into each day, that sunrise, and it's continual presence serves as a reminder that life goes on despite these things that easily distract us. It speaks how life is more than arguing a point of view, no matter how "right" a body thinks they are. It is more than just the routine someone exercises each day to get from point A to point B. It more than supersedes any new normal any one can claim. It is a shame how sometimes it has to nudge us in a spectacular way even though it is there every day without fail.

Because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."
~Luke 1: 78, 79