...before the dawn

Darkness.

Silence. 

Blackness.  

The kind in which you walk wondering where your foot's next step will rest.

The kind in which you wonder, if the path ahead leads to a garden of choicest fruits, or the edge of a cliff.

The kind that meets you in the very core of your being.  That makes your hands shake, your fingers numb.  As you stretch them out, grasping for a sign of something there.

Something besides you.  

Or are you alone?

In this abyss, you can't see.  Anything.

You can't hear.  Anything.

It's just you.  And that thudding heartbeat.

You stop.  The world is changing.  You begin to hear the stirrings in the trees above. 

The sound of rustling surrounds you.  Louder, louder, louder it gets!  Soon, chaos reigns.  You cover your ears in agony.  Your mind races with thoughts of the unknown creatures that could be causing the ruckus.  Will it hurt me?  Is this my last moment?  Will they kill me?

You run.  Your feet care not where they fall, just to get away.  Away from the noise, the chaos, the fear.  Run.  Run.  Run.

Tears begin to fall.  You know not why, but that your paranoia runs wild in the darkness.  For in the deep blackness, your future is unknown.  Your eyes are blind, for lack of the sun.  When the life seems boundless, the possibilities for fear run rampant.  The mind runs wild.

The symphony of chaos crescendoes, then ceases with deafening silence.  You stop.  Your heart pounds, you want to breath heavy, but you daren't make a sound.

You catch your breath.  It seems that all of creation does the same. 

As a flash of light illuminates the horizon.  Your heart feels as if it would burst.  But the dark line far away does first.  Before your very eyes, the darkness gives way to glorious light.  A mixture of pinks, oranges, yellows, and colors yet to comprehend by the human eye explode in that moment.  The moment after the world's breath caught.

The moment in which the darkness was conquered.  And the light reigned, again.  

Then you remember.  It's morning.  Just like yesterday.  The light won.  Just like yesterday.  During the night the darkness battled well.  Again, it fought for it's place in this world, seeking that it may reign the day.  The night seems not to be enough for it's hungry clutches.

But yet, the light catches.  And says no, strong.

All this.  A sunrise everyday for thousands and thousands of years.

And yet, it would seem that creation catches it's breath before every dawn.  Before the darkness gets what is coming to it.

God allows the darkness its time right before He shows up.  He never allows the darkness to tarry longer than we can endure.  He gives darkness it's way, so that when He shows up in His brilliant glory, He can steal our breath away.

Who can watch a sunrise without appreciating the beauty?  

Could it be that ingrained within our hearts is the thirst to witness light's victory over the darkness?

"...Weeping may tarry for the night,

    but joy comes with the morning."

~Psalm 30:5