I’m not a morning person. It takes at least one snooze on my alarm, and then even longer to begin getting ready for the day. My daughter is the same. She wakes up, only to go back to sleep on the couch.

Lauren and I leave the house together each weekday, as her middle school has the earliest start time and I have the longest commute. So, the two in our household who struggle most in the mornings are the first out the door!

Mornings have not been easy for me this year, as I continue to process and work through some difficult circumstances and realities. Mornings can be heavy, as my mind tries to fight off shadows weighing on my soul. 

Yet, mornings are also the time that, in the smallest of ways, God reminds me that He is with me. The dawn continues to break each day, bringing hope, even if I’m not ready to receive it. 

One morning earlier this year, I opened the garage door to load up the car and leave, and the sky was so perfect and still, anticipating that new day. I wished my heart felt the same way. So, I took a picture of the sky. Subsequent days, I started looking out at the horizon, capturing the morning view. Some mornings, the stars still hung in the sky. Other days the clouds crowded back the sun. As the months continued, light began to break into view. There were thunderstorms, there was haze, and there were streaks of orangey-pink hues across the sky. Each day was different, but there was always morning.

Scripture captures God’s first creative acts of goodness as He spoke the morning into reality. Genesis Chapter 1 records it this way:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Notice the state of the earth when God steps in. It’s formless, empty and covered with darkness. This is where I’ve been. Maybe you’ve been there, too. Perhaps you’ve lost your purpose, direction, joy. You feel emptied, exhausted and have no idea how to move forward. You can’t see where to take that next step. You’re lost. Even saved people can feel lost.

Yet, when the earth was sunk beneath the deep waters, God was there. The full God-head – Father, Son and Spirit – was ready to make Himself known. God could not, would not, leave the earth formless, empty and in the dark. He won’t leave you and me either. He loves us too much.

So, God, in His fullness, begins to move:

• God the Father takes in His hands what is formless, to shape and create.
  • Isaiah 64:8 – “And yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.”
• God the Spirit encounters what is empty, and fills to overflowing.
  • Romans 15:13 – “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
• God the Son pierces the darkness, and speaks light and life into existence.
  • John 8:12 – “Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, ‘I am the light of the world. If you follow Me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.’”

God enters my space, and my mess, and knows what’s on the surface and in the deep. He takes what is shapeless, hapless and without purpose, and imprints His fingerprints on my very soul as He molds my life and my heart to make me into a vessel He will use. Then, His Spirit fills me, so full He overflows all around me, soaking my life entirely with joy, peace, grace and love. God’s Word speaks, creating light. Jesus, the Light of the World, illuminates my world – so I can see Him, see myself, and know He sees me, too. 

He forms me, fills me, and lights up my life.

The morning comes, each day. It doesn’t erase the events of yesterday. But each morning does offer a fresh start, a new outlook, and certain hope that God is with us. 

It’s like what Jeremiah recorded in Lamentations 3:19-24.

I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”

Morning reinforces the hope of the resurrection. I can’t help but think that when Jesus spoke light into existence, and the first morning was made, He also held the morning of His ultimate triumph over the grave in mind. That same victory is mine, regardless of whether I see it or feel it. 

The sun goes down, and comes back up again each day. And, God continues to work, shaping, filling and illuminating my heart.

God truly loves us, and wants us to be reminded of how much each and every day. That’s why God made mornings.