Peace at Sunrise

School mornings at our house are usually pretty hectic, as I’m sure they are for pretty much everyone.

This morning, Katie opened the garage door as she was retrieving her lunch from the garage refrigerator. I heard her exclaim, “Mommy! Come look at this!” Expecting to see something horrible or scary (an opossum in the garage?), I came to the door and saw this:

She was standing at the edge of the garage, looking into the pink light of a beautiful sunrise. She was so awed by the sight that she couldn’t contain it and invited me into the moment with her. I walked to stand beside her, and she remarked on the way God makes beautiful sunrises for us.

Happy! I am so happy that my daughter gets it at such a young age. I am happy that her breath can be taken in a gasp of appreciation of the world around her. I am happy that she sees a sunrise and it immediately points her to the Artist, the Creator of us all.

When I was young, my dad had a sign on his dresser that said: “Peace is seeing a sunset and knowing who to thank.” It took me years to understand what that meant. And even now, I’m still learning. Today, I’d change that quote to read: “Peace is your daughter seeing a sunrise and knowing who to thank.”