Anticipating sunrise

(Photo- © Mike Le)

^{Romans 13: 11} And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. ¹²The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. ¹³ Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.¹⁴ Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

"The night is nearly over; the day is almost here." As the first lights of day begin to overcome the darkness of night we all anticipate sunrise. Gradually, moment by moment, light comes and darkness fades. Little by little we begin to see what darkness has hidden. This is the picture Paul paints of the coming of the Lord....the anticipation of sunrise.

In his book, The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis wrote about this as he describe the scenes in both heaven and hell. In heaven there was the anticipation of a dawning of light and in hell there was the fear that the twilight was the last lights of day and the beginning of night. But what Paul describes for us is the gradual illumination of the world around us and it's clear the sun is coming, morning is about to dawn, the day is near when darkness will be vanquished.

The proper response to the approach of dawn is a lifestyle that will not embarrass you when the light reveals all we have done in the darkness. "Let us behave decently....clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ." Being aware of the times Paul invites, no rather challenges us to live like sons of light. In other passages he describes the "deeds of darkness" but here he speaks of a lifestyle lived in the light, live like sons of light.

All we know is a world cloaked in darkness, all we have experienced is the first lights of day, but day is coming. It will come sooner than we know. Live your life anticipating sunrise....or should I say son rise? Live well, sunrise is near.