Just a Little Light

Darkness has settled over portions of this country.

Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit Puerto Rico, leaving devastation in their wake.  Harvey set up shop over Houston and wrecked havoc on that city.  Now, this week, a gun man opened fire on a crowd in Las Vegas, causing the deaths of over fifty people.  On the other side of the Pacific, North Korea is rattling its missiles.  Nate is brewing in the Gulf of Mexico.

It is easy to feel abandoned and forsaken in a time like this.

One of my patients told me that she had to stop watching the news because she couldn't sleep afterward after seeing so much chaos and evil.  I understood completely.

Humans are never blinded by the light, only by the darkness.

I like to take pictures and there are many things that make up a good photo -- a pretty subject, leading lines, and good composition among them, but one thing is necessary for any photo, light.  You can't take a picture of a black cat in a coal mine at midnight and have it turn out, however nice your camera and lens may be.

At the same time, even on the darkest of nights, there are lights to be seen, twinkling through the atmosphere.  Last night, the Harvest Moon floated, shining above the landscape.  Even in the solar eclipse, we look, not at the darkness hiding the sun, but at the rim of light surrounding the moon.

The prophet Jeremiah lived through and saw some horrific things as he saw his people devastated and his culture almost destroyed by the Babylonians.  In the midst of this, he penned a book of poetry called Lamentations, weeping over the loss of Jerusalem.  These are some of the saddest words in the Bible.

Then, in the exact center of this tiny book, come these words "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

We will see what we look for.  If we are looking for the shadows, we will see them, for they are there all around us, but if we are looking for God's light, we can find it too, even in the darkest place.

So I pray that we may have our eyes opened -- not to see the darkness more clearly, but to see the light.