By the Edges

It was 6:10 am, 30 degrees, and my breath looked like smoke in the beam of my headlamp. My two brave (or crazy) friends and I began our ascent of Pinnacle Mountain for a sunrise climb. 

It's fun to be up so early in the morning and not have to be quiet, so we laughed and talked all the way to the top, catching up on a year's worth of life adventures. One studied biomedical sciences in London this past year and came home with a masters degree. Another got married and moved into her first home. I had a few stories to share as well from my first year in Africa. 

We got to the top of the mountain just in time to watch the whole sunrise unfold - you know, not just the moment the sun peaks over the horizon, but rather the fifteen minutes both before and after when the clouds take shape as the light from the sun moves and colors them. 

We sat in a little bit of silence for a while. Not uncomfortable silence, just natural wonder-filled silence as we watched God paint the sky and there was really nothing worthy enough to say anyway. 

I tried thinking about all the verses in the Bible I know that mention the sunrise. "From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord it to be praised." "The Lord God is a sun and shield." "His mercies are new every morning, so great is his faithfulness." 

Then the Lord brought to mind a verse that I hadn't thought about in a while, but one that stood out to me when I as reading the end of the book of Job. I like the book of Job, but I love the end. That's when God finally speaks. He responds to all Jobs questions and hurts, and really, he gives a response to our age-old question, "where is God in suffering?" It's just not the way we might expect. 

God speaks about his creation in beautiful, poetic imagery. He talks about how he laid the foundations of the earth. He measures the rain and weighs the clouds. He tells the ocean where to stop when it meets the shore, and he set up a boundary that it cannot cross. He knows where darkness resides and commands lightning when to come out and where to strike. It's amazing really - to think that what goes on in our solar system and on planet earth isn't just a bunch of laws and forces just happening on their own. It is a command from the mouth of the Lord that must be obeyed. 

In the middle of God's response to Job, he says this. 

"Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, that it might take the earth by the edges?"  (Job 38:12-3)

If you've ever seen a sunrise, you know how difficult it is to describe the beauty of it and how it happens, but this scripture gives words to what I always knew was true: dawn takes earth by the edges. From the edges of the horizon, light creeps in and finds its place, moving along those edges until the whole earth is covered in warm morning light. 

It's Christmas time, which might seem to be an unusual time to get up in the freezing dark to watch a sunrise, but it's also the time of year when we focus on another sun, a baby in a manger, the Son of God. He was the true light, illuminating the darkness of a hope-hungry world, shining brightly as he brought a new dawn to the earth. 

He, too, took the earth by the edges. He reached out to the outcasts of society, the untouchables and uncleans, the sinners and tax collectors. He brought in a new kingdom, one of love and grace and forgiveness and closeness to God, and he did it by the edges through twelve ordinary rejects and a bunch of regular people who experienced healing, freedom, and acceptance through the love of Jesus and the words of life that came out of his mouth. 

We should watch the sunrise more often, I think. It reminds us of new mercies every morning. The faithfulness of God. His power to command the dawn to take earth by the edges. And the baby in the manger, Jesus christ, a Son rising in darkness. "A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices."