A Long Hard Winter

In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through him. What has come into being in him was life, life that was the light of men; and light shines in the darkness, and darkness could not overpower it.   John 1: 1-5

Darkness swirls around us.  Choking.  Bewildering. Grabbing us around the knees and bringing us down.  Man, it is dark.  This we know.  We can see it and feel it and we are trapped.  

Light shines in the darkness.  It pierces through the dense cloud.  And brings shouts of deliverance.  And hope for a future.  But we don’t really see light… we see things by the light.  The Light that reveals what is really True. 

And we understand the metaphor.  Darkness can dim light, but it can’t put it out.  While light does indeed destroy darkness by its very existence, by its very definition. 

And so this light, this energy that we really can’t see or hold, but is very true and is power in a very material, tangible sense is Life.  I can almost get it.  I almost understand glimpses of this Truth. 

And it is enough to carry on for another day.

Dear LORD, You are my helper; it is You who sustains my life.  In the same way that the sun takes water and air and creates a new thing, fresh and green and fruitful, take my life.  Perhaps the leaves are crinkled and brown and dry.  It was a long, hard winter.  But cutting though the tough bark, there are signs of life coursing through the tissue, reaching towards the sky.