The Song of Hope

When I was seventeen and spending the summer down here in Florida with my grandparents, it wasn’t the sunlight that woke me up every morning.

It was my grandmother who would walk into my room singing.

“Good morning to you, good morning to you.  We’re all in our places with sunshiny faces.”

Every.Time.

Eventually, I would make my way to the kitchen for breakfast and there I would find my grandfather.  He would be wearing what he always wore first thing in the morning, dress slacks, top button and belt undone and a white undershirt.

It was the most casual I ever saw him.  I’m trying to think if I ever saw the man’s legs.

And much like Grandma, Grandpa would be singing too, in a very loud baritone.  “Oh what a beautiful morning.  Oh what a beautiful day.”

I was seventeen; I can’t say that I ever appreciated their incessant cheerfulness first thing in the morning.

But the memories always make me smile.  And I was thinking of them when I first started writing today’s prayer, thinking of the sunrise and of song.

Today's prayer:

Lord, let us wake

this morning

to the Song of Hope,

not a lullaby

to help us sleep

but an anthem

to stir our souls.

Lord, let us wake

to the sunrise.

Lord, You are the sunrise.

You are that moment

that comes right when

we begin to worry,

right when we begin

to wonder if the night

will last forever,

right when we begin

to doubt that morning

will ever come—

right then,

at that moment,

You arrive, Lord

on the backs of dolphins,
swimming in the river

and riding the wakes

of morning’s first fishermen.

You arrive with the hibiscus,

Your plus-one to the new day,

who twists and looks for

You over her shoulder.

The flowers too feel

drawn to Your light.

You are the sunrise, Lord.

You are the One

I grow anxious for,

the One I check my watch for,

the One who is never early,

but also never late and always on time.

You are the Song of Hope.

You are a promise held tight,

a promise that night will end

and a new day will begin.

Amen.

Psalm 42:8