Light in the Darkness

This past Friday on December 9, 2016 I decided to mail off some greeting cards at the post office.  There was a long line-up, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the line move quickly as most of the people ahead of me were only picking up packages.  When it was my turn, I was quickly processed and because of the extra time I had when I was finished, I decided to go for a walk.

I decided to walk in the park that my husband and I often run in as it was close to the post office.  I remembered that the last time we went for a run, the pathway we would normally run down was closed off as they were doing repairs to it.  In my curiosity, I decided to see if the repairs had been finished.  It turned out they were done, so I decided to walk down the hill where the pathway led.

I had been feeling very stressed out lately and had felt that I had wanted to go for a walk for a little while.  Even though it was cold outside I didn’t mind, as I had winter clothes on to keep me warm.   As I walked down the newly paved path I became excited, thinking about how great it would be to run on it again when the weather got warmer again.

When I got to the bottom of the valley I started to notice that it was getting a little darker and I remembered that the sun would be going down soon.  I found the walk was helping me to feel a little better, but there was still a part of me that was feeling overwhelmed with life.

Around that time, I walked by a large pond when the sun suddenly decided to shine through the clouds.  I knew in that moment that God was shining down on me and wanted me to know He was still there.  I took a picture of it, as it was so beautiful to see the sun shining on the water. 

I knew since I was in a valley I had to walk up a hill to get back up to the main street.  I ended up choosing the steepest hill around the valley.  When I was walking up the hill I was thinking to myself, man this is hard, and that it wasn’t something I wanted to do regularly.  When I finally got to the top of the hill I noticed something truly amazing.  The sun, which I had thought was bright in the valley, ended up being almost blinding by the time I got to the top of the hill.

It was really an amazing sight to see and yes, I took a picture of that too.  I felt God was really showing me that often we need to work through the hard stuff to really see His light in our lives.  It was as if He was waiting for me to reach out to Him so that he could cast out the darkness I felt inside of me.

I don’t think that means His light isn’t there when we are at the bottom of the valley in our lives, but that we can’t see it as well, since the darkness seems to overpower us.  I hope those of you that are in that dark valley know that as you start to go up the hard hill in your life, that God’s light will help you through it.

Patricia <3 J

John 1:5   The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

 

Here’s a song about that we are waiting on our Lord, even when it’s painful, but we will wait, and we will continue to serve our Lord and worship Him.  Even when it’s hard, we will continue to wait on Him, and take steps in obedience as we know He will be there.

 

“While I'm Waiting” by John Waller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gjXBMC8-oM&list=PL3whQX319DaB37iB8NZpJe206iSdpe3kc&index=165