On Darkness
/Darkness.
In the dark I fret of what I fear is to come.
Fear of the unknown?
Fear of not knowing?
Fear of the unknowable?
So many words are written on darkness on this day,
the shortest of all days, that leads to the longest of all nights.
I read them.
Some are so beautifully strung together,
but they unsettle my soul,
filling it with a sense of
dread
for
the coming
long hours of
darkness.
I know darkness.
I don’t want it to:
Engulf me,
Hold me,
Cradle me,
Consume me.
In darkness I cradled my babies in my arms.
I rocked them.
I sang to them.
And to myself,
I sang,
because I too needed to be:
held,
rocked,
soothed.
In the darkness, my baby and I both needed the
soothing presence of
Comfort
to get us through the night.
I have witnessed, and I have been upended by darkness,
by the darkness of the hearts of others,
and by those who see no way out of the darkness
in the darkest night of the soul.
I do not understand such darkness.
I believe the dark things of this world are to be left with God.
We can trust Him with such things.
“The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.”
He did not intend to leave us in darkness,
Not even in the darkness that comes with our darkest nights when our souls long for
Hope
Comfort
Joy.
He will come.
Daybreak comes to us at the appointed time.
Advent.
Adventus.
“The Arrival”
ad- to
venire- come
The promise has already come.
During advent,
we sense such longing for the promise of His promised arrival
during these darkest of all hours.
The shortest day.
The longest night.
Artic cold is coming.
“Coldest days on record ahead,”
The forecasters say.
What will be my source of heat when I desperately need warmth in my soul?
Where is my source of light when I need true light?
I want no imitations of light that depend on resources created by man.
Seeking light and warmth in the hearts and words of men who offer no true
light
Or
warmth
has left me empty.
The source of light and warmth is
Love.
The Love that abides came down to light the darkness.
Abiding Love that will not leave,
keep my heart full of your light and warmth.
During these days when I see so much darkness,
when I see no warmth in the hearts of so many,
be my
Light.
Abiding Love and Light,
Abide with me.
