99 Things to do between Here and Heaven - #1 Watch a Sunrise

The last few days here in central Ohio have been so cloudy that watching a sunrise has been nearly impossible! However, I agree with this lovely, newly discovered book, that watching a sunrise is something to be done purposefully and with great attention while we live on this little orb of earth. "99 Things to do between Here and Heaven" is sort of the ultimate bucket list for the spiritually minded. I will use it as a jumping off point for more than one blog essay in the coming months. Want to help check off all 99 items? Then come with me on this adventure and lets see how many items we can accomplish together!

"Watch the sun rise" is the first item in the book, and it's something I've done many times. As an adult, my favorite version of this exercise has got to be watching the sun come up over the Atlantic Ocean from the vantage point of the beach at Edisto Island, SC. The sky lightens, and lightens; the clouds on the horizon begin to glow; and then it just pops up - a bright orange ball of amazing glory. Here at home, nearly the same thing happens on a clear day, with the sun coming up over the corn field across the road from my front porch. While it's easier to catch the sun rise on vacation for some reason, it's probably more important to do it on a regular work day. Before "the grind" begins, have a moment of awe!

"99 Things..." explains why the sunrise looks the way it does. It says: "The spectacular colors are due to an effect called Rayleigh scattering. Particles in our atmosphere cause the light of the sun, which is constantly white, to split into its component colors. The most common particles, oxygen and nitrogen, cause the light to be scattered at the frequency we observe as being in the blue spectrum, so the sky appears blue when the sun is overhead. During the sunrise, the distance the light travels to our eyes is greater, so the blue light is more scattered. As a result, more the light from the read and orange spectrum reaches our eyes, sometimes with a dazzling impact." Yeah, on these cloudy Ohio mornings, the effect isn't so dazzling -but on a clear morning, dazzling is the right word for it! The thing is, you need to be somewhere with a bit of a hofizon... If you can't see the sun coming up until it's halfway overhead, the scattering of the light will be settling in to that blue spectrum, and the dazzle will be gone.

So take the time to plan a chance to really see the sun rise somewhere. Get out of town so you can see it come up over a field, a lake, the ocean, etc. Or get up high enough that the cityscape around you can reflect the colors instead of blocking your view. Get up early enough to be ahead of it. Wait for it. Notice the changes to the darkness as it approaches. Ponder what the symbolism of the sunrise might mean for you, or just breathe deeply and sit in awe. One of the Psalmists says we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" and so is our world. Thank you, God, for creating this world so that something simple like the constant rising of the sun can be a constant source of beauty and blessing!