Don’t you just love the sunshine? There is nothing more beautiful than the sun breaking through the clouds after a storm. It’s breathtaking. We have many sayings about the sun. For instance there’s “Well Hello Sunshine” or “Sunshine makes me happy”. We write songs about it like “You are my sunshine” and “Here comes the sun” or “Sunshine on my shoulder.” There is something about the sun that makes us happy and gives us hope. But what do we do when the sun isn’t shining? How do we get through the darkness, the chaos, the emptiness?
God’s word is not just informational its transformational. His word was written for you and me personally. So let’s look at this scripture from a new perspective. Genesis 1:1-4 reads like this. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.”
God created you and I in much the same way. You were formless and void. He hovered over us in the waters of a womb forming us in a dark place until the moment he chose to burst forth our lives into the world. We weren’t alone in that dark place but carefully hovered over. Our hope remains in the fact that God is the same yesterday, today and forever according to Hebrews 13:8.
He is teaching us about his power in darkness. Where is the darkness? It is on the face of the deep. In other words, it is on the face of the one in deep darkness. How did He transform it? He said, “Let there be.” Have you ever noticed someone’s face and in that instant you knew they were in deep pain or a very dark place. Our face won’t be able to feel the sun until we allow the Lord to go deep. Our gentle savior will wait on us to allow him into those deep dark places. The hidden places of chaos that we feel trapped in. We have to let there be. We can decide to remain in darkness or let him in.
John 8:12 says, “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” We may not be able to go back and change the past but Christ has unlocked the door to a different future. A new dawn. Country singer Terri Clark’s song “I just want to be mad for awhile” describes a place we can get stuck in. The last two lines of the chorus say “Please don’t make me smile, I just want to be mad for a while.” It’s cute and comical and too often true. We get comfortable and we can even begin to hold fast to it. But darkness can be deceiving. It will lie to us and tell us it’s our friend. We were wronged so we have a right to hold it. And we may very well have been wronged but instead of being our friend it continues to steal life from us and it holds us captive in the darkness of yesterday.
Depression, trauma and tragedy are real and I’m not here to argue or dismiss their reality or severity. I am here to say however that if we “let there be” God can do what only he can do. He needs only to speak and our darkness can break. We have to cling to the truth found in the book of Jeremiah. God has planned for us a hope and a future. He promised in Philippians that the work he began in us he would complete. He won’t leave us there if we are willing to leave it behind. How he leads you is personal to each one of us. We all walk a different journey but our guide should be the same.
As a little girl my father sang in a quartet and traveled from church to church almost every weekend for years. Being on that circuit I learned so many songs that ring in my ears today. One of those was “It always gets the darkest just before daylight.” Have you ever sat waiting to watch a sunrise? It can be so dark you can feel it. Then almost without detection the black has somewhat softened to a flatter black from the stark sharpness it just eminated, then to almost a very deep blue. Before you know it, light is breaking on the horizon like a aura. It may begin ever so dimly but it most definitely is rising.
Jesus Christ, our hope, wants to break forth into your darkness and warm your face with his light and warmth. I hope today you hear the Lord say “Let there be” over you. Let him speak peace to the chaos and lead you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.
Blessings to you and yours,
Jaime Luce
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