Perfect sunrise?

I bought a new camera and have been taking quite a few sunrise shots off my deck overlooking the ocean. Some photos were taken on days without a cloud in the sky, and some on days that were cloudy, and some on days that were downright stormy. Last night I was reviewing them and trying to separate the bad photos from the good and I could not help but notice that the most beautiful sunrises invariably have clouds in them. The clouds seem to reflect the light and bring out the orange and red hues from the sun lighting up the entire sky. I thought to myself how odd it is that the “picture” perfect days, that we all seem to “live” for, are rather boring and clearly are not as beautiful as the ones that haves some clouds in them. They are not as interesting either; in fact the most interesting photos of all are the ones taken on stormy days when big menacing looking storms were rolling across the ocean.

I was thinking of how much this is similar to our lives. Never having a bump in the road is not all that it is cracked up to be. It would be exceedingly difficult to appreciate good weather if we never had any bad weather. I was talking to a business acquaintance in Chicago this week and he was miserably cold and snow was packing the streets. He was not amused when I told him it was 80 degrees and balmy in Islamorada, (I was). I can appreciate the good weather down here more because I have been in Chicago when it was freezing cold, snowy, and windy; I would much rather be in Islamorada. The gal that cuts my hair who has lived in the Florida Keys all of her life and never traveled anywhere has never seen snow or felt the bitter cold. She has no appreciation at all for our tropical weather and in fact incessantly gripes because we don’t have snow. Huh?

In this world we should understand that hard times will make us appreciate the good times. They do serve that purpose and they also prepare us for harder times. Many young people have never experienced the loss of someone very close to them. As life moves on they will no doubt be exposed to the loss of a friend or a relative and each time it happens, it becomes less traumatic. Old folks have experienced grief numerous times and endure it better often with quiet steely reserve. Observe the reactions at a funeral of those with some age on them, versus the young crowd to verify this phenomenon to yourself.

I suppose my point is that life seems to be like the title of a book that I own; its concept is that, “We cannot have the rainbow unless we have the rain”. If you are experiencing some discomfort or even agony right now, (rain), be of good cheer. Soon it will pass and you will be stronger because of it and will certainly be in a much better position to fully appreciate and enjoy the rich blessings that await you after the storm passes and the rainbow appears. Nothing is forever and that includes the hard times. Life is really just a series of valleys and peaks just like a roller coaster. Don’t lose heart. When in the valley, remember that God loves you with all of His heart and will never abandon you or let anything or anyone steal you away. He will be right there with us through the valleys and as we once again ascend to the peaks of our lives.

Sometimes it is hard to appreciate all of this great wisdom when one is suffering. It is easier to say than do. Just like when you hit your thumb with a hammer; you know it will eventually stop hurting, but when you hit it, your thumb “hurts”! It is when I have “stinking thinking” of that order, that I try to envision how it must have made God feel when He watched His beloved Son being crucified in order that we might be able to be in His holy presence. He has experienced grief of a magnitude that we cannot imagine and is sympathetic to us in every way when we are down. If we pray to Him, He will send the Holy Spirit to comfort us. In fact the Bible often refers to the Holy Spirit, the third part of the Trinity of which God is comprised, as the Comforter and we should be overjoyed that God makes Him available to us, because grief and hard times would be unbearable without Him.

God loves us in stormy weather as well as the great weather and will never abandon us and like Job will never allow satan to put so much on us that we cannot bear it and when He restores us, we will be far better for it. Now that ought to put a big smile on all of your faces wherever you might be today, no matter how cold or hot or rainy or sunny it might be today!

James 1:2
My brethren, count it all joy
when you fall into various trials,
knowing that the testing of your
faith produces patience.