Venus and the New Day

October 9, 2017, 6:30, and the entire eastern horizon is a brilliant rainbow.  Venus is bright and shining.  It rises higher and higher, doing its best to keep from being blotted out by the light of the rising sun.  First it’s plainly visible in its background of violet.  It is still plain as the violet changes to indigo.  But as the indigo turns blue Venus becomes less and less easy to find until the light of the sun overpowers it completely.  Though still overhead, it disappears until early on the morrow when it will again have the opportunity to briefly dominate the black eastern sky.

6:45, and Venus has risen 3.75-degrees from its position of 15 minutes ago.  A jet with a pink trail moves past it, the pilot completely unaware that he has a heavenly companion.

The whole world is unaware of the drama and the miracle that is taking place from the viewpoint of my living room.  It’s the creation of a new day.  The whole world is also unaware of our Heavenly Companion Who makes this all possible.

At 6:55 the sun is six minutes from peeking over the horizon.  I watch Venus, which is barely find-able now.  Will I still be able to see it when the first ray of the sun clears the horizon?  This is an exciting experiment.

I keep my eye glued on Venus knowing that if I look away it will be gone.

7:01, and the sun’s first ray flashes across the valley.  I still see Venus!  I follow it for fully five minutes as the sun rises completely above the mountain.  I divert my gaze to check the time, look back, and am able to find Venus again because I know where to look.

Venus will stay in the sky for most of the day as it makes its way toward the mountains to the west.  Venus will precede the sun across the sky all day until they both set in the west.  Do you suppose that if I knew where to look at noon I’d be able to find it?  I think it likely.

I wonder about Venus.  It’s a hot place with a gaseous atmosphere that prevents our telescopes from examining its surface.  It’s nearly the size of earth.  Was earth once like it is?  Will Venus one day get its turn to be a habitable world?  I think it not unlikely.

How blessed I am to be witness to the creation of a magical day.  What an astoundingly beautiful thing is this glorious world that I’m in.  What glories await me, this earth, and Venus in the eternities ahead?  There is so much that we don’t know, and so much more for us to learn, experience, and to be a part of.