I stole this picture from a friend.

I was looking at this very sunrise yesterday morning. It was incredible.

So incredible, that I had to keep stopping myself from taking each exit off the highway on my way in the the gym to drive toward the water and see it properly. It was magnetic. 

Sunrises are among the most beautiful things in creation.

I had a thought the third time I decided against bucking all responsibility to chase the sunrise yesterday morning. (I am fully aware that I would be a much more interesting person if I had actually done so . . .)

The Creator planned creation in such an incredible way.

A sunrise is a promise of something to come. It’s not the thing itself. Day is coming. The beauty of the sun rising is the calling of the day to become.

I think it’s the Creator’s reminder to us to enjoy the “almost.”

Days are beautiful. Specifically, the 7 clear days each summer in the Great Pacific Northwest in which we are met with the vastness of the sky and painted mountain ranges and water like glass reflecting the whole picture.

But, there is something about a sunrise that inspires people to climb a mountain in darkness. To rise early and wait. To just stop –so we don’t miss it.

The “almost.”  The promise. 

I think our God was speaking to us when he made the sunrise such an incredible sight. I think He was trying to inspire us to stop and realize that sometimes, the becoming is just as incredible as the result.

I know that I often want to rush through the work of becoming. The moments where my heart is broken over and over for the things in me that break my Savior’s heart. I want to get past the part where I’m wrong. I want to be a quick study.

I am eager to be used by God in a way that will help others become.

The beauty of a sunrise has renewed my trust that even – sometimes especially – the work God does in our hearts in the in-between is so beautiful it is worth stopping and being in awe of.

It’s worth climbing a mountain in the dark. Stepping out into hard things even when we can’t see where we are going.

It’s worth rising early and waiting. It’s worth putting my own schedule aside and being still to see all the beauty of Christ in me that I miss when I don’t wait.

It’s worth stopping. Stopping the constant drive in my heart to move on. I must stop thinking in a way that builds walls between my reality and the true mission of my heart. Stop the constant need to control my destiny.

Our God is patient. Time and waiting are not things to fear when we serve our Jesus.

Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

The sunrise only lasts for a little while.

I don’t want to miss it.