Coming into the light

Have you noticed?  The days are longer.

During the dark dreary days it feels like winter will never end. We had a particularly cold winter this year in Northwest Georgia and I had a hard time getting any projects completed. Like my garden and the animals outside, I rested. When the evenings are cold and dark I work a puzzle in front of the TV and go to bed early.

I noticed last week when I was in the front room in the morning with my coffee and devotional book that the sun was coming up behind the trees earlier. When I went out after supper to give our part-time cat Walter some water, it wasn’t dark. Every spring the longer days come as a surprise.

When I look at my weather app, I see that the days have gradually been getting longer  since the winter solstice on December 21^st. The sun has been coming up about a minute earlier in the morning and setting a minute later at night, giving us two minutes a day of more sunshine. The light increases so gradually that we can hardly tell it is changing.

I thought about how this mirrors times when I have come out of figurative dark days.

When struggling with grief or depression, it seems that I will never see the light again. Times like these can cause hope to be obscured as if hiding behind winter clouds.

But when I give the pain to God, I feel a shift. It may be microscopic, like getting two minutes more sunshine each day. I may have a night when I sleep better or find myself laughing over something silly with a friend. Small steps begin to add up, until one day I realize that I am healing.

This weekend we will see a big shift in the daylight when we lose our hour of sleep and go to Daylight Savings time. Even though we will be getting the same amount of sunlight, we will notice it more because it will be light later in the day. Most of us will welcome the change.

In the same way, God’s light and hope is always there when we are suffering, even if we don’t see it. The pain that clouds our perceptions can hold us back from enjoying simple pleasures. As we move through the hard days, day by day, we begin to find joy again.

Traveling through the heartaches of life takes time, and even when the sun comes out, we will have days when we feel dark and dreary. But the hope of brighter days hangs before us. My prayer is that you will be able to embrace them when they appear.