I spent the first day of 2012 in the car. From 4:45 AM until 6:00 PM, I was in our Honda mini van; sometimes sleepy, sometimes pensive, sometimes antsy… Not my favorite way to ring in the New Year.
So, there I was, riding across the state of Michigan, headed south on I-69, in the pitch black dark of night. As time passed and it seemed as though morning would never arrive, I began to picture the sunrise. In southern Michigan it is very flat – and when you look from east to west there is a full panoramic view of the horizon. I had it all planned out. This morning would be the perfect morning for a fully a-blaze sunrise – across the sky, in honor of the New Year.
I whispered my idea to the heavenly Father.
As we passed into Indiana, my hopes did not come to pass. Well, only mildly. There, in the east, a small patch of heaven was revealed where the clouds briefly parted horizontally. A modest pink shone through. The smallest swatch of color. What a let down.
I prepared myself for a year of disappointment.
We drove and we drove. Michigan to Tennessee. I had a lot of time to consider why or why not the sunrise was so unworthy of my attention… why it was such a let down…
We drove on. more and more miles through gusts of wind at 40 mph and sweeping rain, with deep dark clouds surrounding us, we pressed on. I thought about my life, and the many dark clouds that hover around the future. Personal concerns that probably wouldn’t matter much to you, but they are a big deal to me. Family changes. Life altering decisions. Hopes and Dreams. Sometimes I believe I only need the hope of a sunrise.
As the day passed, slowly the the clouds were plucked away like big puffs of cotton across a bright blue sky. I began to sense His presence… By the time we reached our home, the sky was completely clear and we saw a beautiful sunset of pastel watercolors – strokes of pinks and lavenders, yellows and oranges… so much of His glory to behold at the end of the day.
It is so easy for me to question a God who assembles the dawning of a day and even a year with claps of thunder and crashing lightening. How am I supposed to see His glory in the darkness? Where is my hope for 2012? I would love to begin this year with a heart that is filled with expectation, rather than dread.
And this is what I learned on New Year’s Day. Glorious hope is not only displayed in a sunrise, but it is also in the raging storms. He alone conducts the symphony of thunderstorm, just as much as He paints the sunrise and sunset with the stroke of His hand. His majesty reigns supreme. What good would a God be who could only do one or the other? There is an amazing amount of hope that swells in my soul, knowing I have a heavenly Father who is the creator of all.
Here are two separate Scriptures that I have been thinking over, reveling in, yesterday and today… I need these words for 2012:
from Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
and
from Romans 15:13 – Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It has been a slow dawning of my heart’s New Year, but, I am very hopeful! He IS my only hope for 2012.
amen
daily portion 
Beautiful reflection. Thanks, Melody.