"Darkness... Is as Light."

"I ask for the grace to pray and meditate faithfully.  I ask for patience, gentleness, tolerance, empathy, and compassion.  I ask to abstain from anxiety, anger, arrogance, compulsive behaviour, cynicism, discouragement, and self-importance.  I ask to know and follow Jesus more closely, seeking justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly."


Psalm 139:11-12
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night."
12 even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.


1) "even the darkness is not dark to you;" "darkness is as light to you."


2) Today, the sun is shining, hot and bright, after a long, long, long season of cold, grey and wet.  It is easy to affirm these words.  These words have been a comfort when the sun hasn't been out, proverbially and literally.  I feel these words affirmed when I sit on my balcony in the morning, listening to the birds, and the little water fountain, observing the growth, the green, the blooms, breathing in the crisp air.  Even when it is grey and raining... especially when it rains hard.  I love sitting there in my covered shelter when the sky is forebodingly dark, and rain is pelting down, cleaning the earth.  In the last couple weeks, I've had some time under dark night skies to the north where Jupiter is now so bright and the stars cast shadows.  The darker the moon, the brighter the stars and planets.  Darkness is as light.  There are many things we can see in darkness that can't be witnessed in the broad daylight.


3) What is the invitation in all this?  To remember when I'm experiencing darkness to look for what I might need to see that can't be seen in the light.  What does God want me to witness in the darkness?


"Holy One, thank you for darkness that is as light."


Breathprayer: "Darkness... is as light."