This is the break of sun over the Mt. of Olives. I stood on our veranda and watched the sun light up the sky this morning.

What is it about morning? I’m definitely a morning person, so those early hours may seem surreal to me; but I can never get over their freshness and sense of new beginning. It is a gift each day and arrives on schedule as constant as my heartbeat or breath. In fact, morning rhythm will outlast my life. What a picture of one of the most captivating attributes of God: constancy, faithfulness.

God’s faithfulness is also seen in the four seasons. This Colorado girl is missing the changing of the seasons here in Jerusalem. It is still very warm… in fact, in the high 80s this week! No aspen trees turning yellow against the deep green evergreens of the Rocky Mountains, no ornamental pear trees of Texas that turn a fiery scarlet in the fall… just hot, dry  and almost withering conditions.  Mt. Zion, across the Hinnom Valley looks browner, drier, and dustier than ever… oh how we need the rain to change the seasons, to revive and refresh the earth and the souls of men.

The spiritual climate is just as dry too. That is why our morning and evening prayers include cries for the outpouring of the Spirit of God. We will give him no peace…

Let us know, let us strive to know the LORD; as certain as the dawn is his coming, and his judgment shines forth like the light of day! He will come to us like the rain, like spring rain that waters the earth (Hosea 6:3).