Before the dawn

“Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.”

Ravindranath Tagore

Pete Greig in response to the above quote wrote this;

Birds sing before sunrise, I’m told, not because they are happy but because they have been woken by the cold and it is not vet light enough to hunt for food or a mate. They sing when they are constrained, cold and desperate – in anticipation rather than celebration. Once satiated they are silent.

We are communicants in this mystery. Participants in this moment when the sweetest, most startling hallelujah arises – contrary to anything we ever expected – in the darkness preceding the dawn, in the shivers that yearn for a sunrise, the hunger before the feast.

It reminded me of the song by Bryan and Katie Torwalt, “Praise before my breakthrough”

I’ll praise before my breakthrough
‘Til my song becomes my triumph
I will sing because I trust You
I will bring my heart, I will lift my song

So sometimes we stand in the darkness, in our pain. The heart we bring is shattered and our song is but a fragile whisper. But we sing. And we wait in anticipation of the dawn.

We wait for the sun to breakthrough the night. For the mercies that are new every morning.

In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.

Psalm 5:3

Even so, come Lord Jesus.