PRINCIPLE: “When you wake up, open up.”
Every evening many of our flowers close up, as if retiring for the night. Every morning they open up, as if getting ready for the day. On the surface, it appears that God made them that way – which, of course, He did. But there’s a deeper truth in this divine routine. The flowers open up because of the sunlight and only open to their fullest when the sun is shining. For all my years of living, I have known this. But only today have I learned yet another lesson – “When you wake up, open up.”
E. Glenn Hinson wrote, “Prayer…is opening like a flower opening to the morning sunshine to allow God’s love energies to flow into your inner chamber. You may know that many flowers close up at night, folding their petals in. When it begins to become daylight, they open just a little. Then as the sun’s rays strike them, they open a little more and a little more until they’re wide open.”[i] “When you wake up, open up.” Once again the rhythm God created into nature is intended for us as well. Just as God, for example, created the 7th day and the 7th year as times of rest, we know we, too, need the rest built into our lives as well. So it is with the opening and closing of the flowers – we need to get into the rhythm of closing up at night and opening up in the morning to once again receive His sunlight for the new day. “When you wake up, open up.”
Hinson continues, “’God is love…’ Theologically, you must say, God’s love energies brought the world into being. God’s love energies sustain the world. God’s love energies are directing the world toward some meaningful end. And the same love energies are constantly pouring out on you.”[ii] I need those divine energies each day! And they are available every morning – but I must open up, even if just a little, to let the sunshine in. If I do not, I will live the day in darkness, without divine energy, and not be the beautiful flower God intends and created me to be. “When you wake up, open up.”
Maybe the little children’s chorus from so many years ago (dating myself again!) had it right. “So let the sunshine in, face it with a grin, open up your heart and let the sunshine in!” “When you wake up, open up.”
Will you join me in a renewed commitment to begin each day by taking a moment to greet and thank God, and thereby open our hearts to let the sunshine in? Just imagine how beautiful and full-bloomed your life will be each day! “When you wake up, open up.”