Mom, Look Out the Window!

One of the things all my friends and family know about me is that I am not a morning person. I loathe getting up early and what I consider early is later than most people. Not being a morning person is a huge pain in my house since Papa Bear and Little Bear are both morning people. Most days they pop out of bed at practically they break of day and are happy and ready to go. If I have to get up early I drag my carcass out of bed grudgingly and it can take me hours to feel truly awake and ready for the day.

When Little Bear and I went on a trip recently we had to be up way before the sun to catch a 6am flight. We got up at 3am. Little Bear was his bright sunshiny self. I was dragging, partially because I had no sleep the night before from travel anxiety, and partially because it was WAY too early.

We got on our plane at 6 AM. The sun had not really come up yet. The sky was starting to lighten some, but it was not sunrise yet. My intention was to take a nap once we got in the air. About ten minutes after got in the air Little Bear says "Mom, look out the window." So, I pretended I was asleep like any non-morning person would do. He says again more urgently, "Mom, look out the window!" So, I finally do and I saw such a glorious sight. The sun was rising at 10,000 feet in the air.

I have seen many sunsets from the air, but never a sunrise until now. Sunrises from the air are majestic. The beauty of the heavens and earth meet in a bright and shining glory that could only come from God. The clouds lit up and turned pink and orange. The sun shone brilliantly between the clouds like a ball of fire. The edges of the clouds brightened to a dazzling orange. There are no words to describe the splendor of the sunrise we watched. I have no idea how long we watched, but I am torn between saying an eternity went by and it was no time at all. The brilliance of that sunrise is engraved in my mind. The pictures I took with my phone through the dirty airplane window could never do justice to the magnificence of that sunrise. The power and the beauty of a sunrise from the air are worth an early morning flight, once in a while.