By Sonja Corbitt

 

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.
~Lamentations 3:22-23

My favorite moment of every day is the moment when God kisses the world with “Good morning.” I have never been an early bird. For decades I missed those stunning few seconds. Recently I started rising early to go to Mass, and the sweetness of these few seconds has captivated me since. Silly maybe, but every morning, when the sun first peeks over the trees, I say with all my happy heart, “There it is!” I feel the invitation in the warm rays, to send the light radiating over me out into the connections I make in the successive moments that construct this hymn of a day and inch the earth toward its fulfillment.

I smell the prayerful incense in the exhalations that circle and sustain the earth and its inhabitants. I hear the Divine benediction throbbing in my own pulse, and throughout the atmosphere, awakening every dewdrop, frolicking fawn, and sleepy head into its eternal purpose, beckoning an awareness of its miracle, its gift. There is no promise of another one. Indeed, today will be the last for many, maybe one we know. Maybe me.

My face may soon break the surface of this murky dimension to gasp with new breath, the shocking clarity of all I forfeited while my internal eye focused on the necessary trivial. Yesterday cannot be unlived, yet if faced with truth, might be transformed. The horizon leans forward.

What are we missing because we’re sleeping? What glorious gifts is God’s great, open hand showering on me while I blearily, blindly rush through my to-do list? What little miracle awaits my simple attention to my neighbor, this day?

May I appropriate well the grace of this good morning and present it at evening to its Maker as a cup running over with participation in eternity. “His mercies … are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22-23).

Prayer:

Lord, give me eyes to see and ears to hear You, as You breathe Your constant love in me, with me, around me, over me, and through me. My heart is open. Let me be a little ray of light over someone today.

Respond to His Call: 

Can I make a deliberate effort to smile like a sunrise at every person I come in contact with today?

 

Called By Name Devotional Bundle