Perspective at the Sunrise Tree

I have a favorite sunrise tree. It's just a half mile away from the house. As God paints the morning sky, each day is as unique as a human fingerprint. A winter sunrise is different from the summer, and the fall slightly varied from the spring as our planet makes yet another spin around the sun.

This morning, the stark branches were black against a multi-colored sky, like an Artist's palette where the paints are dabbled together.

"Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book, the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Note it. Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead God set before your eyes the things that God had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that?"

Augustine of  Hippo, 5th century

As I drove home from a meeting late yesterday afternoon, my "sunrise" tree caught my eye. Instead of colors penetrating the inky black of dawn, the bare branches were accented by delicate clouds tinged with sunset pink as the sun began its descent to the western horizon.

The beauty was different, though the old tree was the same. It's all a matter of perspective. It's a lesson to take into my day today. I think Augustine had it right:  God didn't write the book with ink. The world is His canvas, if only I open my heart and eyes.

"Everything is a parable that God is speaking to us, the art of life is to get the message."

Chester Elijah Branch, 21st century