Out Early Running

About a month ago I started jogging again after a winter hiatus, and one morning was met with what may be the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. When I started from home, the deep blue of night was just beginning to retreat as a dim glow began to outline the Rockies far to the east. Strewn just above the jagged peaks were a bundle of low clouds, kindling for the fiery display about to unfold.
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I started running south and then west, tackling the steady climb towards the Oquirrh's while my legs were still fresh. Turned away from the advancing morning, I missed the first incendiary brush strokes of dawn. After about 20 minutes, however, I reached my half-way point, circling the raised western edge of a small neighborhood park.

As I made the turn to the north, my eye was diverted from its usual focus on pavement by an unusual brightness to the right. Since the park sloped away to the east, nothing obscured a panoramic view across the valley. As I turned, my eyes were assaulted with color.

The clouds above the mountains were ablaze in red and orange light, like coals of an old campfire restoked by winds of morning. Normally obscured in sillouette, the mountains now proudly displayed both crag and crevice, each glacial patch awash in reflected fire. All was set against a crystal blue backdrop which summoned both bird and pilot to joyful flight.

Rarely have I interrupted a morning jog for anything but injury or neighborly greeting. But I had to stop. This was a scene of glory that demanded an appreciative pause. 

For several minutes I gazed awestruck at the beauty before me. I had been there before; this was my regular route. But never had the planet so unabashedly preened before me. This beauty had always been there, hidden in shadow or blanched by brilliant sunlight. But just for a small moment before dawn, as Earth bowed toward it's lifegiver, was it's full glory revealed.

In nature, God provides patterns, clues, and examples, often hidden, to be revealed to those prepared to benefit from the knowledge they contain. As I gazed upon this sunrise scene, I thought how the full beauty, grandeur, and glory of man is often hidden in shadow, and revealed only as he bows in humble devotion to his life-giving Creator.

A morning prayer is much more than a one-way recitation of need or expression of thanks. It is also a revelation of grace, beauty and possibility for the created.

I feel a few lines coming on:

Out early running, I turn to the east
And gasp at the morning's prostration.
Earth bows before the more glorious orb
In humble, devout adoration.

Reflected there in the Earth's morning prayer,
Revealed by this act of conviction,
Is His love for all that His hands have made,
The beauty of God's benediction.