I Love ya, Tomorrow!

The sunrise began very muted this morning, hidden almost entirely by clouds. It fooled me, staying behind the soft grey cover so far past the predicted sunrise moment that I turned and started back to the house. A longing for one more sunrise caused me to turn a yearning look over my shoulder as reached the bottom of the dune--and there he was. Sir Sun had come out for a farewell and "see you later!" for my last morning of vacation at the beach. Appropriate. I'm feeling a little muted myself. Not sad. Just contemplative.

The last day of vacation is a bag of colors and feelings. Gratitude. Mild disappointment it's over. Saying one more year, "This was the best ever!", and then remembering there's no place like home. Loving the break from deadlines and work overload, but antsy to get back in the thick of it again.

The sunrise this morning reminded me that the sun ALWAYS rises. At the beach, in suburban neighborhoods, in the inner city, in peaceful countrysides, in war zones. It rises on the rich, the poor, the overworked and the underchallenged. On the sick and the well, the young and the old, the holy and the profane. The sun always rises because, behind the clouds that mute or sometimes even seem to obliterate it, it is ALWAYS there.

Reminds me of a song I loved from the first moment I heard it belted out in the Broadway show, and then double-triple loved when our daughter Rachel became Annie in the 9th grade and gave her own voice to the optimistic truth:

"The sun'll come out tomorrow!
Bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow
there'll be sun.
Just thinkin' about tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow till' there's none.

When I'm stuck in a day that's grey and lonely,
I just stick up my chin and grin and say,  oh

The sun'll come out tomorrow!
So you got to hang on
till' tomorrow, come what may!
Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow
You're always a day away!"

Tomorrow, wherever I am, the sun will come up, even if I can't see it clearly or at all. There WILL be sun. That is a guarantee. 

And here's a long term guarantee. One day the Son that outshines Sir Sun on his best and most blazing day will rise, too. There's a tomorrow come Malachi the prophet saw with long term vision the Lord Himself gave:

 

The Lord of Heaven’s Armies says, “The day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace. On that day the arrogant and the wicked will be burned up like straw. They will be consumed—roots, branches, and all. But on that dayfor you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings.And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture. On the day when I act, you will tread upon the wicked as if they were dust under your feet,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. Malachi 4:1-3

Oh, yes. The Sun WILL come up tomorrow. I love ya, Tomorrow.