A response to Winter's Lament

This morning dawned with another soft gray sky.  Although one wall of my prayer room is almost solid glass, the room was quite dark in until well past 7 am.  And in that time the single candle flame cast warm, soft light throughout the space.

 The single flame stimulated a profound awareness of the Light of God's Love enfolding all of my thoughts and all for whom I prayed this morning.  Perhaps this sense of the reality of God's Light welcoming me this day would have been less apparent to me if sunrays were bursting upon the scene.

I've heard so many laments about the limitations of winter.  I'm not insensitive to the very real challenge many folks have when direct sunlight is muted and occasional.  However, my heart is drawn to speak confidently today about the Light that shines brightly -- always.  I want to offer an intervention.  I want to invite a pause to winter's laments.

Perhaps we can consider these darker mornings as an opportunity to appreciate candlepower. Perhaps our yearning for longer daylight hours can heighten our trust that God's Light in Christ can illuminate all of the dark corners of fear and sorrow.  Perhaps longer hours of natural darkness can be an opportunity to offer our emotional, mental and physical winter "blahs" to God.  In doing so, in His Mercy, we have the hope of our laments being transformed to joyfilled songs of praise and thanksgiving!  In doing so we claim the abundant Light radiating in our souls and we rely upon that powerful wattage to meet face to face the emotional, mental and physical lethargy of winter.

When we focus upon our yearning for Sunlight, we may become less mindful of Sonlight.

The reading for today ends with those beautiful words:

By the tender mercy of our God  the dawn from on high will break upon us. 

Wow... that is the equivalent of a blinding sunrise, isn't it?