The Heaven's Declare the Glory of God

Today I’m grateful for the sunrise.

The gate swung shut behind me and I fumbled with the padlock in the dark.  It was 5:11 am and I had 4 minutes until the van picking me up should be swinging by the fried chicken place just up the street from me.  I shivered as I walked into the almost empty street; even the orange juice stand (where a woman squeezes oranges and then pours the juice into a bag and gives you a straw to drink it with) wasn’t set up yet.  The only people I could see were farther up the block, lining up to get on an early morning bus to Xela.  Two white vans drove by, one clearly labeled “Turismo”.  The other stopped.  It was too dark to tell if it was the one I needed.  Suddenly, the window popped open and I heard Carlos’ voice “over here, Annie”.  On the way out of town we stopped to pick up two more coworkers, than settled in to the long ride to Antigua where we were giving a workshop starting at 8.  I was in my “I woke up before 5 am” haze, trying to tune out the world when I heard someone mention the sunrise.  I looked out the windows as a sort of reflex, and then stopped to stare.  The sky was painted bright orange and the mountains cut a jagged black silhouette at the bottom.  Above, the sky was still blue-black and a perfect full moon floated on top of it all. Such beauty made my early morning worth it.

(Unfortunately I couldn't get a decent picture of this morning's sunrise through the foggy windows, so I'm substituting a sunset picture)