Morning has a beauty all her own. Since my body seems to think it requires little sleep I spend a good deal of time awake before anyone else has stirred. I have one friend who knows that I’ll be up so he calls from Florida just to chat. These hours are best for work. Dairy farmers are in their barns. Construction crews monitor their equipment. News rooms, airports, schools, industries, all begin to buzz before sunrise.Silence at the 4 o’clock hour. Black, apart from starlight, the atmosphere is still at rest. Absence of light allows the earth a respite from activity. Darkness has its own sense of majesty. Is it any wonder that The Almighty’s presence is oft described in Scripture as His “covering” or “canopy” (2 Samuel 22:12; Psalm 18:11; 97:2) and His residence as “thick darkness” (1 Kings 8:12; 2 Chronicles 6:1)?!

Birds begin to sing around five. God’s creatures are familiar with the cycles of life as they have been created to so function. It strikes me as I listen to songbirds even now that the whole earth has been commanded to give its praise to The One who made it (Isaiah 43:20; 44: 23; 49:13). It is no wonder that the worshipper will give praise or cry out for help in the morning (Psalm 59:16; 88:13).

The first vestiges of light appear over the horizon before six. The order of creation itself was established in Genesis one. The repetitious phrase “the evening and the morning” set boundaries for time, space, and people. Science (simply, observation of how the world works) is dependent upon The Orderer who gives orders to an ordered world. Sunrise is a demonstration of faithfulness (1 Peter 4:19). As the anthem declares, “Sun, moon and stars in their courses above, Join with all nature in manifold witness, To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.”

“When morning gilds the skies, my heart awakening cries, may Jesus Christ be praised…let all the earth around ring joyous with the sound, may Jesus Christ be praised.” It would seem that the hymn writers bear witness to Scripture’s text and their addiction to the early hours of the day.