Excerpts from SEA EDGE by W. Phillip Keller

Sunrise and Sunset

    Sunrise over the sea is this hour of early dawn when the shore lies stripped of all human life. The clash and clamor of all human intrusion is stilled. The feverish activity of modern man is absent.
    Peace pervades the realm of the sea, sky and shore.
    Slowly the eastern sky turns from gray to gold, to burning red. The low light casts the coast into sharp silhouettes. Headlands, hills, trees, rocks and birds along the beach stand sharp against the light, cast in brittle black.
    Every dawn breaks anew upon my soul with the promise that today can be cherished. It is a special treasure of time entrusted to me for the Master’s use.
    Gradually as the sun moves in grandeur across the sky, the hours of the day are flooded with light, warmed with pleasure. Then slowly as evening descends the burning orb of fire settle softly into the sea, as though settling down gently for the night.
    The brilliant banners of tattered clouds, tinged with intense red, rose and pulsing scarlet hues, remind us that the day is done, What has been done has been done!

    It must be hard indeed for skeptics, atheists and agnostics to view sunrises and sunsets. The splendor of their glory, that comes from our Father’s loving heart, are to the unbeliever nothing more than mere chemical and physical responses to external stimuli. No wonder their world is so bleak, their despair so deep, their future so forlorn.
    But for God’s child sunrise and sunset are very special. They are intense interludes of quiet communion with the living Christ. They are moments of majesty in which our Father displays His love and might. They are scenes of spiritual exaltation in which His glorious Spirit lifts us to wondrous heights of pure joy in His presence.

    So dawn follows darkness. Sunset follows day. Our short sojourn here is marked off in the steady rhythm of the seasons, tides, moons and sunsets. Each is a beautiful reminder----“O my father, You are nigh! Your glory fills the whole earth! All is well with my soul! In Your presence there is joy forevermore!”