So I have heard it said, “It’s brightest after the storm.”
Well I just happened to be driving home through a crazy bad storm the other night and could barely see a thing when that thought popped into my head. So naturally I thought, yeah that’s gotta be right. It’s always brightest after the storm. Then I started thinking about the crazy stormy year I just made it through and how, though its bright now, I still have my dreary days when memories come flooding back. It was right then that lightning struck! No, I don’t mean figuratively either, but that works too.
This lightning bolt lit up the whole sky. I could see every puff of cloud there was that night. It didn’t matter that the rain was sheeting down and my wipers were going a million miles per hour or that traffic was crazy bad and horns were blazing. All that mattered that instant, in that dark storm was how bright that lightning was. The thought resonated. Maybe it’s not after the storm that we are supposed to think to look to, but that bright spot in the midst of the storm. You know the one I’m talking about. That moment when all you can do is to be angry and mad and think, why is this happening? That moment your fist goes shaking with fury into the air as if He could have really wanted this hurt for you. And then it happens. The lightning. The bright spot in the storm. At some point in your darkest moment, in the midst of the fist shake, you feel His embrace. Instead of Him saying don’t blame me, he uses that outstretched arm to real you in closer. Oh beautiful destruction. How I love thee. It really does bring us to our knees but in the end isn’t that where our saving begins?
So don’t let yourself be consumed in fear or doubt. If you find yourself in that storm cling to that radiant glimpse of light no matter how quick or faint it may seem. It only takes a spark to light that path out of the darkness. Let the destruction happen for out of it, beauty will thrive.
Just some late night ponderings as I sit here trusting, all in His good time and will.
