A Different Light

This day brought a most unique sunrise. It was very hazy, so even though the sun was a blazing orange, it was muted just enough to change the vision from fiery sun to hot air balloon. I was stopped in my tracks by the sight, confused. I kept trying to determine if I was walking East into the sunrise, or if this was the moon’s last reflective gasp as it it faded in the face of the greater light. But, indeed, it was what it was; an unusual and beautiful version of the rising sun.

I found myself reflecting on the people in my life whom I have suddenly, for just a moment, seen in a different light. My laughing, gentle mother who, in her last days, showed a strength and courage far beyond my own. My strict and somber father, who joyfully served and gave to his neighbor in a time of need. An acquaintance who emerged as a friend in a hard time. The person who, out of the blue, writes a word of encouragement that arrives old school in the mail, exactly when you need it the most. Like the sunrise, when conditions line up just so, we are able to see things, and each other, differently.

Moments like these are gifts, whether revealing the nature of the sunrise or our shared human nature. It would do us well to look a bit more closely at one another when conditions are right. We just might see each other as we more truly are. We might just find the beauty in each other that was there all along. We might just find a true friend. We might just find ourselves. Who knows? We might just find a glimpse of God that changes everything.

Peace.