His cry woke me. It was ten minutes before my alarm was scheduled to sound but there it was, my son’s voice, crying to be heard. I gathered him up out of his bed and gave him what he wanted, food and comfort all at once. I blinked the sleep from my eyes and they adjusted to the pink-tinged darkness in the room. Actually, that’s how a pessimist would put it. Pink tinged darkness.

Really, it was pink-tinged light.

If light could be a scent, this would strawberry-soft and juicy and full of brightness and promise.

If light could be a feeling it would be settled calm and buzzing excitement all at once.

Sunrise.

Sunrise and a baby.

Newness upon newness. Promise upon promise. Fresh. Pure. Begging to be indulged and held close.

I breathed it all in, gazing at the watercolor sky and then the roundness of my son’s cheeks. Only a moment before, I had lingered in sleep, wishing the blankets could stay tucked around me a few minutes longer. I had slogged myself out of bed resigned to my day being ten minutes longer than I wanted it to be but then, then this.

This beauty.

If not for the discomfort of waking early, I would have missed it. If not for the demands placed on me because of motherhood, I would have slept right through it. But God knew that glory demanded my attention.

We scoff at discomfort. We avoid it and spit at it and bemoan it at every possible opportunity. We hate it don’t we? We rearrange and plan and sidestep to miss it but what else are we avoiding?

If not for the discomfort, I would have missed the beauty.

If I hadn’t been woken from my sleep and roused from my place of comfort, I would not have seen the majesty of a grand sky the whole earth wide painted for me and the tiniest little hands that fit inside mine reaching out for me.

The discomfort is unavoidable but so is the beauty of it all.

This is our God.

This is how He works. He stretches us so we can find out how good it feels once it’s over. So we can appreciate how much faster we can run when it’s done. He rouses us from the things we think we want so that we can gaze at something far more beautiful.

So, this is the refrain of my heart. “The Lord does all things well! I will delight in Him and whatever he brings because he paints the sky for my pleasure and draws me out to see it. In Him is fullness of joy. In Him, lies the hope of a newness. I can trust His ways for they are good.”

My God does all things well.