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Welcome to The Faithful Daughter! Below, you will find my latest article, along with a permanent link to its text for your bookmarking pleasure. (Just click the title.) This site is still in its infancy, so while you wait for more content to arrive, why not check out some of my other writing? You can find some of my thoughts at my livejournal; you can also find some of my published work with the Voices of Orthodox Women - just look for articles by Brittany Dowdy!

 

 

Latest Article:

For a Sunrise

Most early-morning commuters hate the sunrise.  Low on the horizon and blindingly bright, the sun makes it hard to see the road in one direction or another no matter how you're facing.  The beauty of the sunrise is lost in frustrated squinting and ineffective attempts to block enough light to see clearly.  And for the most part, on those occasions when I have found myself driving home from Ault early in the morning to make it to work on time, I have been among those who wish the sun wasn't quite so bright when it first comes up.

But this morning, for some reason, I couldn't be annoyed. Instead, Lewis's words above kept popping into my head, and I began to think about the sunrise very differently.  Now, I know that most Protestants are obligated to pretend they love C. S. Lewis even if they don't (Don't believe me?  See what Jon Acuff has to say about it...) but I'm not pretending.  His love for God and his love for literature, stories, and language both resonate with me strongly, and I absolutely love reading every little thing he's written.  He chooses every word with precision and care, and he can say more in one sentence than many people can say with an entire book.  The way he says what he says is often as impressive to me as what he says itself.  I don't think very many people can honestly say they appreciate him to the fullest - including me.  But I had an insight into just how beautifully crafted this particular sentence is as I drove home this morning.

The sunrise, you see, has long been a symbol of the resurrection of Christ.  Indeed, as Father Anthony explained the last time I was in his church, whenever it is possible, an Eastern Orthodox church is built so that the congregation faces the east.  This is not, as is the case with the Muslims, in order to face some holy place on the other side of the world, but in order to face the sunrise.  The sunrise is creation's daily testimony to the glorious fact that Jesus is risen.

Do you begin to see what Lewis was doing?  His vision is so steeped in Christ that he sees everything else, even down to the metaphor he uses to describe his vision, through a lens of Christianity.  Just as the sun rasies from the darkness of night to send it away and illuminate our daily lives, so the Son is risen from the darkness of death to defeat it forever and illuminate our daily lives.  And every single morning, all of creation points toward this most miraculous of truths as the sun reappears in the sky.

I'm not trying to suggest that you have never heard this quote before, or that you have never heard this metaphor before.  But if you're like me, you never put the two together, and you certainly never applied it to what happens every single morning, as it happened.  I suggest changing that.  If you wake before the sunrise, take a moment out of your normal routine to reflect.  If you don't, try it one day.  There's something indefinable about that short time between dawn and day, when the sun is just beginning its journey, that can give a great peace if you let it.  Take a look as the new day dawns.  Appreciate the beauty you see before you.  Watch the sun rise, and think about C. S. Lewis, about Father Anthony, and about the very first Easter, and proclaim along with all of creation,

Brittany Dowdy
October 6, 2009

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"To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns." - Charlotte Bronte