The Light that Finds Me in Early Morning - Guest Devotionalist Derek Maul

Guest Devotionalist -- Derek Maul

I love the light that finds me in the early morning.

I usually leave the house when it is still dark. Then, somewhere in the first mile and a half, details begin to emerge; the grass changes from black to green and almost immediately the birds begin to sing.

I'm not sure if color even inhabits the trees and the flowers at night, but the moment the light comes the truth about their beauty is instantly revealed. Was it there all along? Is it simply revealed by the light? Or does light somehow create anew at the beginnings of the day?

That's pretty much how I feel, sometimes; walking home, picking up the newspaper, making coffee, standing over the sink and watching life pour over the small rise behind our house and into the kitchen window; long shadows from the east and the morning heavy with promise; I feel made new.

The morning is a kind of altar on which I can offer what is made possible by light.

Two weeks ago, doing an interview with a local pastor, I was taken by the communion table set at the front of the church sanctuary; its simplicity, its rough-hewnness. This particular faith community called it an altar, because the bread and the wine represent the very real and very complete sacrifice made on our behalf when Jesus offered his body and his blood. Each new day is the venue where, essentially, I vote on how much Christ's action really means to me. Rather than the diffused revelations of candle-light, I appreciate the way early morning sunshine highlights with such gentle clarity exactly everything I bring to the table.

So what do I bring to the table - the altar, the new light in the kitchen window - this day? How will my pilgrim way refract the truth of insistent life and bring communion to my world?

I don't know. But today I am committed to the light.

DEREK MAUL is the author of Get Real, A Spritual Journey for Men and a columist for the Tampa Tribune.



His book second book, My Heart I Carry A Star: Stories for Advent" is to be released August 2008).