All In A Days Grace

Here we are the day after Easter. We have spent the past few weeks in what I have called our upper rooms; waiting, uncertain and disconnected. We might find ourselves feeling a sense of anticlimactic disappointment as we find ourselves on the other side of Easter Sunday, still in our upper rooms waiting for our Pentecostal moment. I read that pollution is down in several places due to the pandemic and its restriction on travel. As I go for my daily walk I see the streets filled with families bicycling or walking around the neighborhood; something I haven't seen since my childhood. I see a longing in the eyes of those I pass on the street as we walk off our uncertainty and isolation. The longing is connection and relationship. When we say hello as we pass it is different than it was only months before. There's more engagement and appreciation. Instead of a muttered "Hello" as eyes drop to the ground it's a warm "Hello" eyes engaged and connected. ...

"This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. "-1 John 1:5 I ponder this as I look up at the lights that hang in my patio. I think of this scripture and others that consistantly point us to the fact that God is light.  "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."-John 1:5  I realize as I look up at the tiny glowing string of lights, that I've turned them on prematurely. The sun is still out and I can barely see them, but dusk is beginning to arrive. Another scripture comes to mind as I watch the sun slowly slip behind the trees. The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid? -Psalm 27:1   Darkness overcomes the sky as I think of the events of the past few weeks. Pandemic. Uncertainty. isolation. fear. All words that seem to relate to each ot...