“Give exceeding thanks for the mystery which remains a mystery still — the veil that hides you from the infinite, which makes it possible for you to believe in what you cannot see.”

— Robert Nathan
The clouds are rolling in this morning, and rumor has it that we may see some snow flurries before the day is over.  My love of sunrises is no secret, largely because I speak of it all the time; and there is something especially breathtaking about the sunrise on a morning when the clouds cover its brilliance and only let the light peek through now and then.
On clear days, we look outside and know with a certainty that night has been defeated once again and the light of day has returned to the world.  We love to live in certainty.  I liked knowing this morning that when I turned on the faucet there would be water to fill my glass.  I like the feeling of waking up in my own bed and knowing that it will be the same bed in the same room in the same house where I closed my eyes last night.  Certainty is reassuring and its patterns teach us to trust our world and not be afraid.
When the clouds roll in, I always feel a sort of excitement.  They come along with restless air that darts and swirls around me and says, “look here…no, look there.”  When clouds obscure the sunrise, certainty can give way to doubt.  How can we know for certain that morning has come when there is no sun to herald its arrival?  It is at times like these that we must rely on the mystery that lies behind the clouds and only peeks through when there is a momentary separation that leaks some light.  On the darkest morning, that tiny sliver of yellow-white flashing at the edge of the cloud takes me from my certainty to the place of mystery — the hope of all that lies beyond my view.
On a clear and certain morning, it is easy to believe that I can see all that exists.  What I forget is that the sun’s light is so blinding that it hides what lies beyond.  It is the clouds that cover the morning light that remind me of the unseen things that lie beyond them and even beyond the sun.  Just as the sunlight peeks through on a morning like today and reminds me that the sun still shines behind them, there are times when the mystery that lies beyond the veil finds a small tear in its fabric and touches the part of us that sees without eyes.  It is there that hope is born.  It is there that dreams are woven.  It is there that we discover how very infinite the universe really is and how far it stretches beyond our certainty.