Courtesy: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

As I drove home from a sun-filled Eastern Montana Thanksgiving  along the mountainous US Highway 2, pinkish cloud tendrils teased the mountaintops as the late day sun gave way to evening. I took a fancy to the colorful fingers in the sky, wishing I was high above on a summit looking down on the playful clouds. But the closer I got to home in the Flathead, the clouds grew thicker and lower and darker. Soon the sky was within my reach, an oppressive ceiling pressing down on me. By the time I parked my car in the driveway, I was depressed. The smothering darkness had taken its toll on a soul that just hours earlier was dancing in sunlight.

The oppressive clouds have stayed firmly in place going on 7 days now, and I yearn for the life-giving rays of the sun. The world is a much darker place when we can’t see beyond our cold  cloud enshrouded  valley. Our lives can  feel very dark too, when we can’t see beyond our present struggles, when we can’t seem to capture the light we see alive in others lives. And yet, we can have hope, in the glimpses of sky as the clouds part- as a caring heart steps in – however briefly, that there is light for us to see, that we are not alone, and that our present struggle is only a temporary darkness. God walks with us in darkness and in light.

“For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.” ~2 Corinthians 1:5-7 

Let your light so shine  – just as His light shines in the darkness.