Courtesy: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

I tend to wander off the beaten neighborhood path on my runs or evening walks-  venturing out east of town where the night sky opens up. Here I feel like I am back on the familiar Eastern MT plains but with the shadow of the mountains I love beckoning me instead of an endless horizon.  Here I can breath again, away from the drone of traffic except for the occasional rushing of a train passing a short distance away. Yes it is dark, but I also feel free – free from the confines of buildings and life. Alive.

One can’t help to feel a bit vulnerable and alone in the countryside especially in the dark, but then I feel that way in life at times, despite my strength, independent streak, and general joie de vivre.  And so it was one recent dark night, that I felt an odd kinship with a single pine tree that stood alone in a blaze of light… okay she merely twinkled… but to my eyes she was a glorious light in the darkness, standing tall and beaming brightly – alone.  In that moment, my stride lightened, as if my heart was literally being lifted out of a temporary but very real solitary funk.

I wish I knew who to thank for dressing that singular sensation in white – a few birds trimming their shelter perhaps?  Their gift of light in the darkness reminded me that although I feel very alone at times that doesn’t mean I can’t shine, perhaps even brightly. God did not place me or you on this earth to be a dim bulb.

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