EP 04 · 100 Days of Morning Prayer
Day 4 — 10,000 Reasons
The fourth morning: the same Los Cabos sunrise a breath further on — the sun a fuller point of light, a thin line of foam edging up the sand — and Psalm 103:1.
Day 4's beach at dawn, a still from the morning's film.
Day 4 is the same long Cabo beach, one quiet stretch further into the same sunrise. The rippled, foot-marked sand still fills the foreground and runs away to the left, to the same line of dark rocks where the water starts. The sea stays calm, but it is not still: a thin white edge of foam keeps arriving, sliding a little further up the wet sand each time before it slips back. Out on the horizon, exactly at its middle, the sun is a single point of light again — a shade fuller than yesterday's, no longer a spark, not yet a disc — and the orange band around it has deepened, while the sky above has already let go of the night. For twenty seconds, almost nothing happens, and that is the whole of it: the light grows, the foam breathes, and the morning keeps its promise slowly.
Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. — Psalm 103:1
This beach is in Los Cabos, at the southern tip of Baja California Sur. If you go to stand in this light yourself, go while it is still dark: on November 5 the sun rises here at about 6:26 a.m. local time, and colours like these belong to the half hour before it. Face east from the long beaches on the San José del Cabo side — the open sand of Playa Hotelera, or the south end of Playa Palmilla — and watch the foam line; it is the morning's clock. The song under this morning is 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord), the fourth song of the cycle, sung the way a congregation sings it. Ten thousand reasons — this morning only asks you to count one: the sun came up, again, right on time. Tomorrow, Day 5, same time — 8:00 a.m. — the morning opens with Goodness Of God.
EP 03 · Day 3 — Living HopeSister series · Faith Through TravelMy Lord, Holy — the places that made me pray: Niagara, Hong Kong, Cabo, and the views that stopped me in my tracks.Reader stories
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- EP 01Day 1 — How Great Is Our GodThe first of one hundred mornings: a long shoreline at dawn, boats resting at anchor, and Psalm 143:8.
- EP 02Day 2 — King Of KingsThe second morning: waves folding onto wet sand, catamarans at anchor, and Revelation 19:16.
- EP 03Day 3 — Living HopeThe third morning: a Los Cabos sunrise — a long sandy beach, a calm sea, and the sun arriving as a point of light — and 1 Peter 1:3.
- EP 04Day 4 — 10,000 ReasonsThe fourth morning: the same Los Cabos sunrise a breath further on — the sun a fuller point of light, a thin line of foam edging up the sand — and Psalm 103:1.