Hold on for the Sunrise

                                                                                                                                                                 

“Just hold on for one night. It might take your whole life, but joy comes in the sunrise…Hold on for that sunrise…I’m just here to remind you.”

"Sunrise" by Forrest Frank

                                                                                                                                                                 

The summer before my senior year of college, I traveled to a rural village in Africa with a handful of students from my university. We were there to learn about the culture and to bring school and playground supplies to the impoverished schools within the village.

On a whim, one evening, one of the girls in our group suggested that we should watch the sun rise the next morning. Unlike the many sunsets I had viewed over the years, I realized I had never intentionally watched the sun rise before. And what better place to do it than in Zambia?

We all agreed to wake each other up in the middle of the night so that we could stake out a spot and be sure we didn’t miss it.

Around 4 in the morning, we walked through the dirt roads together until we reached a small hill near the lake. We laid out a few blankets and took turns dozing off while we waited for the sun to rise.

Not being a very good napper, especially not on a small dirt hill in the middle of Africa, I laid in the darkness growing impatient. Why had we come so early? Was it even worth it to wait? Would we even be able to see anything after all? It felt like it would never come.

My memory is that after many hours of waiting, the sunrise—unlike the brilliant Lion King sunsets we had viewed over the last few weeks—wasn’t particularly impressive. But it was still a remarkable experience to watch as the darkness of night faded away, to be replaced with gentle light.

This, I believe, is how many of our dark seasons of life are brought to light. Gradually. Gently. So subtly that we hardly even notice it is happening. Often when we are growing impatient. At times when we are on the brink of giving up looking for the sunrise.

And then, without any grand announcement, we look around and we breathe a sigh of relief that the world doesn’t seem quite so dark anymore. The light isn’t brilliant like the noonday sun, but it is tangibly there. Even as the light spreads across the sky, we can still see the stars sparkling in the distance. But the darkness is fading. And then we know the truth. That the light prevailed after all.