Early in the Morning

“And Abraham rose up early in the morning …”—Genesis 22:3

“And Jacob rose up early in the morning …”—Genesis 28:18

“And Moses … rose up early in the morning …”—Exodus 24:4

And Cassy rose up early in the morning. Yes, she did rise up early in the morning, but she didn’t want to. She wanted to stay under the covers, coddling her flesh in the warmth of the sheets and the cushy comfort of her pillow. But baby called. She was not in her usual playful mood in the morning, either, full of the sounds of finding her voice.

No, this morning was different. There was an insistence to her mommy, a "please-feed-me" whimper. So, she got up, reluctantly, with a demand to her husband under her breath, yet loud enough for him to hear, that she gets a “sleep-in” morning soon. That’s how her day started.

Not the prettiest of morning pictures, she knows. But then, as she opens the pages of Scripture, eating her breakfast and drinking her coffee, while her little girl resigns herself to yet one more tummy time, she begins reading verses on the Devotional Life. She loves devotions, she thinks to her Lord. This topic sings to her this morning. And the first verse she reads is, “And Abraham rose up early in the morning.” The next verse, and the verses after that, also dealt with waking up early in the morning. Okay. Point taken, Lord, she thinks. Much like her daughter resigns herself to tummy time, she resigns herself to the fact many spiritual people rose up early in the morning. She doesn’t like it, but she knows God is telling her to also rise up in the morning and spend time with Him.

These mornings of early wake ups are to be spent with Him in prayer and meditation before the day begins. These mornings when she “puts on the Lord”* equip her to be emptied of self and full of the Holy Ghost for all the tasks ahead of her … the most important being to care and love her husband and her daughter. The other circumstances of the day are in God’s hands to be dealt with one at a time, leaning upon His grace and wisdom to guide her.

She loves these mornings. She wishes they came later, but she’s thankful they come at all and that she can spend some time with Him. As coffee is to her flesh, she knows these Scriptural meditations in the morning are necessary for her soul.

So her day begins, at first, with the resignation of her flesh, and then with renewed devotion and thankfulness that she rose up early in the morning to spend time with Jesus.

*Melinda Doolittle, an American Idol contestant from several years ago, said in one of her interviews that she “put on Jesus” in the morning, in the same spirit of getting ready for her day. That thought has been with me ever since, and I wanted to give credit to where it was due. 

 Prague, Czech Republic (2005)