Note: On Tuesdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
In a couple of weeks, I’ll be getting together with a number of people I don’t see often enough. In some cases, it’s been years. They’re the types of friendships that have stood the test of time, that even if we don’t talk or message often, we’ll pick up just where we left off.
I’m thinking particularly of my friend Julie, an ordained Baptist minister. We won’t have to plan it; we’ll just know to meet shortly before sunrise at Green Lake, Wisconsin’s deepest inland lake. There won’t be a lot of words, just comfortable silence. And when the sun breaks above the horizon line, we’ll sing “Morning Has Broken,” then join some other friends at breakfast. Oh, we’ll offer grace, but our sunrise practice is our invitation to the Lord to come along in our company for the day.
The first sunrise I saw with Julie at Green Lake was 2002, I believe. I couldn’t have been much further from having a relationship with God. But I was an early riser, and when I left my room to watch the sun come up, there Julie was. She was there every sunrise that week, and so was I. And so was God, waiting for the invitation to enter my soul. It was at Green Lake that my ears began to hear.
