Dawn Prayers

Today is the first Monday of daylight savings time this year. If you are like me, the 'spring forward' sets my internal clock off a bit. It is still dark when I get up and even when my husband goes off to work, when just last week, it was light at that time. Somehow it makes it feel like I got up too early. But there are advantages to being up while it is still dark.
As the sun starts to rise, the world outside my window comes into view and gradually the shapes of the neighborhood homes and yards become more clear. It occurs to me that this is a perfect metaphor for a way we can pray for those around us.

In the darkness before dawn, we can start out praying in general for the larger world. As the light makes things more distinct, we can pray for each of the homes around us, even if we don't know the people all that well. When the dawn shows greater detail, our dawn prayers can go into more detail about the needs we are aware of in the neighborhood and city and world.
By the time the sun illuminates the city, we will have wrapped it in prayer-and what better way to start the day?