My time of day

In high school, we put on a production of the musical Guys and Dolls, and I loved it--the music, working hard with my friends, some of whom I'd known since I was five, and just the thrill of performance, even if it was "just" a high school stage.

There is a love song in Guys and Dolls that could barely be considered a love song, it is so short. Sky Masterson, the main guy who is also a gambler, sings it, and I love it. At the time, he's falling for Sarah, the Salvation Army missionary. It's moody and kind of dark and dreamy sounding, and takes artist's license with the note patterns, which gives it just a touch of eery.

"My time of day is the dark time
A couple of deals before dawn
When the streets belong to the cop
And the janitor with the mop
And the grocery store clerks are all gone...
That's my time of day
My time of day
And you're the only doll I've ever wanted to share it with me."

Sometimes God comes to me that way with his love, slow and 6am-like, with the kind of deliberate but subtle gestures that feel like an early morning in-bed stretch.

It happened this morning on the way to work. I left while it was still pretty dark and thunderheads were staring down at the golf course across the street, where a fountain was dancing faithfully for no one.

I got in my car, relaxing into the pleasure of early morning calm, before rush hour has really kicked in. I drove up my street, about a mile or two to the highway, and merged on easily. I had decided that there would be no radio this morning. I wanted the chance to think about what I would write on this blog, and to let the silence create a space for God and me to talk.

And then He surprised me. Though it was already 7:20 in the morning, the moon was placed as though in a photograph, just to the left and side of my highway view, shining as brightly and clearly as though it were midnight. I was wishing I had a camera so that I could capture the mood of the perfectly lined up streetlights and the moon overhead, with a pack of early bird cars making their way to work before the stressful time.

I love when God speaks in things like the moon, the things that seem simple only because they are so faithfully there day after day.

In the Bible, in Psalm 89:35-37, the writer is remembering words that God spoke in a promise, and he says,

"Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness—
and I will not lie to David—
that his line will continue forever
and his throne endure before me like the sun;
it will be established forever like the moon,
the faithful witness in the sky.”


The faithful witness in the sky. Thanks, God, for the things that seem ordinary, but are far from.