Open the curtains!

It may still be dark out, but I open the curtains anyway. Daylight will come.

My mom had something to do with my habit. It began when I was a child. I doubt she gave any thought to my watching her, because she was on a mission. Of course, it wasn’t early morning when we visited her parents, but I can so clearly remember what happened every time we got to Grandpa and Grandma’s yellow stucco house. Mom put down whatever packages of food or mended clothing she had brought, and starting in the dining room, gave each tired old green window blind a good yank, sending it flying to the top of the frame. It was bad enough the heavy lace curtains still blurred any view of the out-of-doors, but she would have nothing to do with hiding in a darkened house.

I wonder now if my grandparents felt just a little too exposed living in that two-storey house in town. To the north were the railroad tracks and a huge orange grain elevator, so that was may have been their link to farming days. But, there were other people across the street on the east side and even more houses to the south, where the town stretched for blocks. Who knew how many strangers might come to peer in the windows?

Mom never ventured her ideas as to the reason for drawn blinds, but it must have been a deep-seated one, for the house was dark whenever my mom and I arrived. Mom never lost any time letting the sunshine brighten that old house. She raised the blinds as often as they’d been lowered!

Although watching Mom helped form my values, I have my own reasons for wanting the curtains open. Usually I wake about the same time, and in winter, the days are so short I have to wait a while before the eastern sky shows light. So why open the curtains? Because I want to see the light! 

As darkness fades and slight tinges of light appear, my anticipation wakens, too, and I wonder what the day may bode. Is this what the Psalmist and other writers of Holy Scripture felt?

Awake, my soul! Awake, O stringed instruments and harp! I will wake up at dawn! Psalm 57:8

I am up before dawn, crying for help. I find hope in your word.  Psalm 119:147

“Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” Hosea 6:3

Because of our God’s tender mercy the dawn will break upon us from on high. Luke 1:78

The image of light is prevalent in God’s word, and that’s another reason having an unobstructed view is significant to me.

I open the curtains, settle in my chair, often with a hot beverage, and look to the the light in God’s word. I don’t want anything to obscure what He will shine into my life.