On how the night is as bright as the day...

This night.... the darkness is just too big.

Too…. Dark.

When I was a little girl I slept with the landing light on and the door open. I would lie in darkness but desperate for the comfort that light really shone just around the corner.

We can feel like we’re lying awake in darkness. How the walls press in and shadows dance on the walls. They tell us lies about how we’re not enough. They play out hopeless endings to bleak stories.

Monsters still lurk under the bed.

And even now, all grown up and I lie paralyzed by fear. These hands struggle to loose the cords of oppression around the poor and vulnerable. This tongue trips over itself and can’t find the kind words that would heal a broken heart. All grown up and I’m still closing my eyes, pretending none of it’s real.

But it’s all real. All this darkness in our world, all these broken lives, homeless hearts and souls emptied of hope. There really are monsters lurking, I’ve seen them and so have you.

But there’s a light.

There’s always a light in the hallway, kept burning by a Father who says

Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. I’m here.

So I look on the walls and shadowy lies die in the place of a truth that tells a story FULL of hope, lit up by a burning brightness that illuminates monsters and calls them out and laughs in the face of them.

This light, lit by love that said I’ll walk through the night for you and bear the weights that your hands can’t carry and I’ll be your kindness. I’ll take your shallow breathed prayers and watch as they melt everything that’s cold and dark and frozen.

Grace says lie here, be still here through the night, while I light up the dark.

And then awake into a light that has been won for you. Feel the strength in your fingers, find a new song to sing; Open your eyes, wake up into hope

And live.