Morning arrived and my pre-teen niece whose young body craves sleep was not so thrilled at my jostling her awake at 4:30 in the morning. She moaned and complained but she moved - all the while telling me that watching the sun come up was not going to be very exciting.
We arrived to an empty parking lot . . . not a soul in sight, not a soul at a booth collecting tolls for parking . . . no one but us. We rested in the car for a short while and when the first peeks of light hit the sky, we headed out to the shoreline. Beside me I could still hear the not so faint whisper of some more grumbling.
As we hit the beach and the sun began to hit the horizon, the grumblings got quieter and quieter until they ceased. The next thing I hear is "Wow! This is beautiful. I can't believe how beautiful this is." Now I was thinking this in my head but these were the words coming out of the mouth of the groggy pre-teen standing next to me.
Break-taking, amazing, impressive, and awe-inspiring are adjectives not strong enough to express the beauty we witnessed that morning - the broad strokes of orange and yellow across the sky highlighting the lighthouse at Fire Island as its beacon shone brightly across the morning sky. I don't believe my niece Lizzie will every forget that morning. How can you ever forget such a beautiful sight?
"Praise ye the LORD. Praise, O ye servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD. Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD'S name is to be praised. The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwelleth on high. Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!" Psalm 113:1-6