Up the Sunbeam

-- "The light still shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out. " John 1:5 PHI Caught and captivated by the spangled darkness of a starry and moonless night; the sky seems a limitless ink well, glossy and liquid and black and . . . somehow comforting in the quiet way of shadows. Just in case you wondered . . . just in case you thought so, the enemy does not own the dark! Sometimes, the  dark is just the best backdrop for light. Nowhere is beauty more stunning than in the vividness of contrast, and God is a Master of it! His Shekinah, His powerful, dwelling Presence, blazed glory-fire in a mighty pillar, lighting up the desert nights for His children.  It was not only to give help and comfort to them, but as a warning to anyone who might try to attack . . . My people are not alone in the dark! My people are protected! My people are MINE!! I. AM. HERE!!! God is not afraid of the dark!   "And they will tell the inhabitants of this land about it...

-- F rom within dark and damp decay inside a hollow tree trunk, an unexpected light caught my attention. Changing my angle for a closer look, I discovered a favorite thing--a frame within the frame. The leafy light that filtered into the rotting tree was all the brighter for the surrounding dark inside. It glowed warm and soft despite the chill of the day and the winter white light of the hazy sun. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:5 TNIV Today, I had to change my angle of observation to look for the frame within the frame of my life. When I looked for it, there it was--light shining in the darkness. While I felt somewhat surrounded by evidence of decay and diminishing joy, God gave me opportunities to speak His encouragement to people who needed His touch. In shining His light into dark moments of a very mundane day, His bright, warm glow sparkled back all over me! "The Life-Light blazed out of the darknes...

I watched the news this morning. Ever feel like Henny Penny was right and the sky really is falling? Bombs in far away places, more than 100 killed, mostly women and children . . . The powers that be, fighting for the lives of fish and animals while they callously starve people and abort babies . . . World leaders promising to save the world while they try to steal our freedom . . . A 15 year old girl gang-raped while a crowd of onlookers just watched the sh ow . . . A 7 year old girl, slain, discarded with the trash, laid to rest in a coffin excruciatingly small . . . How bleak the view wher e there aren't shades of grey black enough to do justice to the darkness of the scenes played out before our incredulous eyes. What do we do when it looks so impenetrably dark? How do we keep from giving in to the sadness and fear and hopelessness of a despairing world? Even worse, what do we do about a world blinded to the darkness to the point that some even call darkness light....

"Any occurrence requiring undivided attention will be accompanied by a compelling distraction." Robert Bloch Heat waves turned everything to liquid. People looked like melting wax figures, dripping and drooping in the 104° scorcher of a day. The blinding assault from the sun was rivaled only by the suffocating radiant heat rising off the pavement. This wa s the setting for the Walnut Festival that draws many tens of thousands of people every year for fun, food, carnival rides and entertainment. Yesterday, my son was part of the entertainment for a large portion of the day, playing drums for multiple bands, finishing the day with his own band's 40 minute set. When you are the mother of a drummer, you spend a lot of time transporting his drum set to and from rehearsals and perfor mances. It is a job I love and take on willingly! However, a drum set is not an easy thing to carry around, so you try to pull your car as close to the stage as possible. I got per...

Nature is filled with truth, with messages and illustrations from our glorious Creator--messages designed purposefully to show us something of Him. Like the good Teacher He is, He knows that we learn best when a visual aid helps us to see the concept instead of just reading about it. A sunflower is a great example. It has an interesting property called heliotropism , which means that it continually orients itself to the sun. During the darkness of night the sunflower turns itself to face the east, awaiting the new dawn, so as not to miss even a moment of the sun's brightness. This picture was taken just after sunrise and this sunflower is taking full ad v antage of the golden morning light. All through the day, as the sun moves, so does the sun flower , turning, turning, turning, slowly, consistently, staying in the optimal position to take in the maxim u m amount of light. Sunflowers behave in a way that seems almost greedy for light. They aren't c ontent like oth...