REACHING

Michael started our garden inside this year.  We transformed our living room, temporarily, into a greenhouse (of sorts) to start all kinds of seedlings.  Tomatoes, squash, cucumber, sugar snap peas, broccoli, and all the veggies that you can’t get enough of in the summer.  My mouth waters just thinking about slathering a boatload of Duke’s mayonnaise on two slices of bread with salt and cracked pepper and a thick slice of a warm fresh-from-the-garden home-grown tomato.  There simply isn’t any better taste in the world.  I ate so many tomato sandwiches when I was pregnant, I thought I wouldn’t be able to enjoy them anymore. But I was wrong.  They are still the tastiest thing I will create from the garden this year….and I cannot wait.

Now, typically I don’t love living room projects, they annoy me.  I have a hard enough time just keeping the shoes that accumulate from the 10 feet running around this house picked up to allow other projects to clutter everything further.  But the seedlings, I have enjoyed.  One day in particular, we had a quiet moment in the house.  I went over to the little bright green plants and said to Michael,

‘Look how they’re reaching for the sun.’

They were  seeking the sun so intently, they reached for it.  Daily, they sought the sun they so desperately need to survive.  They cannot grow without the sun, you see.  Through photosynthesis, plants use energy gained from the sun in order to grow.

Everyone knows that.

But maybe here is something that you didn’t remember from biology 101.  I didn’t remember before I looked it up on science.com.  At night the plant goes through a process called ‘respiration’.  Respiration can happen in the dark.  During periods of darkness the plant releases the energy gained while in the light.

In this world, you will have trouble…

There are times in our lives, in our Christian lives, that there will be trouble.  There will be darkness.  There will be suffering, shame, pain, guilt, death, fear, sin, evil himself.  At times, it feels so dark that it seems like there will never be light again…

But take heart…

But remember when you were in the light?  Remember it’s warmth?  Remember how intently you reached? Down deep, the light is in you.  It is stored deeply within, and is available to sustain you through the darkest night. It is already there.  Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12). 

I have overcome the world….

There is hope.  The light will return. The Light will come again in it’s fullest glory.  There is such beauty, such joy, such comfort, such warmth, and such brilliant light that is coming.  Hope.  Hope even when you don’t feel like hoping. Because He overcame the world, there is always reason to hope.

My prayer for you is that whatever darkness you may be experiencing in this moment, that you are able to draw from the light within, and breathe.  There is no suffering, shame, pain, guilt, death, fear, sin, or evil himself he has not endured on your behalf.  He took it all on himself.  He knows your pain.  Your shame.  Your guilt, fear, sin.  He knows.  He knows and is with you even in the darkness (Matthew 28:20).  

One may experience sorrow during the night, but joy arrives in the morning. Psalm 30:5

And when the Light comes, when the joy arrives, my prayer is that you, that I, will reach so intently for the Son that we will have an abundance of light stored within to propel swiftly through any darkness….and we will not have to tarry there long.  May the morning come swiftly.  And when it does, reach.  

God’s Son is the very source of life. (John 1:4, 11:25, 14:6)

Reach for the Son.