This morning I was thinking about the sunrise. It happens each morning. It happens no matter whether I want it to come or not. The sun rises each morning. If I have had a long, sleepless night, I might welcome the sun when it finally rises. At those times it seems like it takes forever for the sun to rise and night to be over. I embrace the sunrise and give thanks that the long night of darkness is over. Other mornings, I curse the rising of the sun. (All right, that really isn't true. I don't know if I have ever cursed the sunrise. I use that word to bring about the point I am making.) When I want to sleep, when I have had too short of a night of rest, when I am enjoying laying bed, snoring away, the sun rises and breaks into my comfort, my peace, my sleep and wakens me. The sunrise on those mornings isn't so welcome. In fact, it is actually frowned upon because instead of letting me sleep, it forces me to break out of sleep and enter into the new day.
Sunrise - it comes without my bidding. It comes without my asking. It comes when I don't want it. It comes each and every day. I can't make it happen. Nor can I stop it. (As I use this analogy, I realize that it isn't perfect but it seemed to work in my thoughts.)
Sunrise - the Light of Christ breaking upon the darkness of my life. So many times we hear about the fact that we bring ourselves into the relationship with Christ, we decide to follow Christ, it is up to us in our lives if we want the Light of Christ. Bringing ourselves to Christ is like saying we caused the sun to rise today because we wanted it to rise. We can't do either. Christ comes to us, often unbidden and often unwelcomed. He is unbidden because we don't realize how much we need Him. He is unwelcomed because when He comes into our lives, we must change. We don't have a choice. He changes us. He makes us new and different people. Like the sunrise that comes when we want to sleep, but it comes anyway and awakens us, so the Light of Christ comes when we are asleep in our trespasses and sins, and awakens us to a new life, a different life, a life that we may not be ready to live. The Light of Christ changes our lives. And we may not want that. How many times have you sat in a worship service, listened to the sermon and had it hit you hard? You then are faced with the question, am I going to change or am I going to follow the old way? Am I going to be changed by Christ and His Word or am I going to harden my heart and not change from my old, sinful ways? The Light of Christ has a way of challenging us in that way.
And then there are times when we are facing struggles, hardships, pains, toils, trials, tribulations, temptations and sins, and we long for the Light of Christ. We ask where He is, why He isn't coming to us. We even do what we can to "force" Him to act in a way that will change the situation of our lives. Like the person longing for the sunrise to end the dark night, we long for Christ to act in order to end the darkness of the situation. We can't make Christ act any more than we can force the sun to rise. At those times, we are like the Psalmist who says, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits... more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning." (Psalm 130:5-6 ESV)
Sonrise - the Light of Christ comes to you. His light shines brightly into your darkness and brings hope. His light shines brightly into your sinfulness and brings forgiveness. He comes to you. You don't come to Him.
All right, that is the musings and ramblings for this morning. May Christ's light break upon your day as you face today. As it does, remember, His light changes your life.
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