These recent southern fall sunrises seem to be a dime a dozen. A ten cent coin. One tenth of one dollar. In the 1970s, the five and dime was the perfect place to pledge your silver Roosevelt for important things like, baseball cards and July snow cones. It’s a shame a dime isn’t worth the same anymore. Most of mine reside in the abyss of a Mason jar. Along with pennies and nickels, I don’t expend much energy keeping track of their whereabouts. They’re like Blackbeard’s treasure…buried somewhere deep in the bowels of my sofa where they’ll never be found, and I’m ok with that.

Because any southern thinker would, as I was cookin’ up these marinated thoughts, it hit me like a passel of three-year-old boys racing to the Goldfish table for Sunday School snack time. I’ve realized, that no amount of our most diminutive American coin is sufficient compensation for the moment when the southern sun tips its hat to the setting moon such as that which unfolded before me this morning. Rubbing two nickels together won’t work either, but nice try. Even if one were Rich Uncle Pennybags, there wouldn’t be enough coins to make ends meet.

As heavy as the southern heat and humidity are, which comes to nap on our wilting summer shoulders, so the sun, as it journeys southward until, at the winter solstice, it rises, cool and refreshing, as far to the south as it can muster, it’s worth stepping into the confessional of creation to praise its beauty. It’s on these mornings when facing southward encourages my soul and awakens my spirit to enjoy this place I call home.

So, if my musings haven’t yet fallen off the donkey creeping along the canyon trail of similies and metaphors, I’d like to bring this home.

I think, for someone who rarely carries any jingle, its ok for me to accept that which boiled in the sky, like a lava lamp, as a free gift for me to enjoy, no dimes required. This colorful display was priceless, not because I couldn’t afford it, but because it was afforded to me with no expectation for repayment. As we’ve been taught, nothing in life is free…unless it’s from the hands of He who made it. God’s gifts are our’s to accept. Our dimes are no good to Him. Only our hearts need apply.