The shortest of days, the longest of nights

Today is the winter's solstice, that annual day when we experience the shortest of days in the year and the longest of nights.  The afternoons end in darkness, and in the morning, the dawn sleeps in. 

The darkest of days, indeed.

Surrounded by holiday cheer and glitter, so many of us are overwhelmed by utter darkness in our own lives or those around us.  You may be one of them. 


But we are not stuck forever in the dark, as in Narnia where for a long while, it was "always winter and never Christmas."  But that was not the end of the story.   Nor ours.

The nights only get shorter from here.

Solstice marks when the darkness begins to be pushed back, the beginning of redemption -- or rather, as we can only see someday in the rearview mirror --the continuation of God's redeeming. 

God is at work. 
     His faithfulness never fails.
Even in the mysteries.
Even in what I cannot understand.
Even in the darkness.

I can be paralyzed by the dark. 
             Or walk with Him through it.

...even the darkness is not dark to You;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with You.

                                Psalm 139. 12

God does not have a night light;
          He has night vision.
 He sees clearly through
     what is unknown and scary to us.
The unknown and dark and difficult
        are not impossible to Him.

"Walk with Me,
          rest easy in dark rooms
               -- and long nights --
and do not be afraid."