Sunrise comes early to the Outer Banks of North Carolina in July, so I got up at 4:50 this morning to come to the highest point on the island—the Wright Brothers memorial—so I could see it. [Photo gallery below.]

The thing about the sunrise is how quickly it passes. Which is exactly what Robert Frost was getting at in his little poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” I memorized it when I was in high school, and I still know it by heart.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

When the sun finally came over the horizon, I was struck at just how appropriate is the psalmist’s description of the sun as “the strong man”:

Psalm 19

1 The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
2 Day to day pours out speech,
    and night to night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech, nor are there words,
    whose voice is not heard.
4 Their voice goes out through all the earth,
    and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
5  which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
    and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
6  Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
    and its circuit to the end of them,
    and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

I watched for about 45 minutes for the sun to show himself over the Atlantic Ocean, and when he did, there was definitely a strength to his appearance. Majestic.