When The Son's Light Shines As Hope {Words of Life Wednesday ~ A Link-up}

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After a long day, my husband walks in from work and picks up the hydro bill that I had set down on the bed only four hours before. Who wants to think about bills on a Monday? The way they roll in as steady as the waves out from sea they leave you broken on the shore if you don't stay riding on top of them.

"Oh, the hydro bill came." he mutters mostly to himself. "Always on time. The rain cloud in the day."



The words are just out of his mouth and hanging heavy in the room like dripping denim on the clothesline, when our baby comes looking for her daddy. Well, she is four years old after all, but she's still our baby.

"Hey, Sunshine."

He drops the bill, picks up our little delight in his strong hands, and tenderly looks down into her giggling eyes, "Enough about rain clouds when sunshine just entered the room."

She is stretching out a whole foot on either end from his arms with her ponytail swaying at the top end, her red shoes slipping from her toes, and her hands, all sticky from the popsicle she was sucking that apparently melted all over her, sticking straight up.

"You used to fit in these arms. What happened?" She soaks up the loving attention from her daddy. She missed him all day and now that she knows he's home, she runs off to wash the sticky from her hands and do important four year old things. Like play outside under the blazing sun that poked out from behind the rain cloud.

There's only been about three blinks between thoughts, nothing much has changed in the atmosphere, other than a shift in perspective.



I've been walking under a rain cloud (and I'm not talking about the steady bills that keep on crashing in and weigh you down) while looking for the sunshine to reappear. 

I've been inwardly groaning waiting for the ache to pass.

It won't.

The groaning is here to stay.

This body is longing for its resurrected body. This is only the long labouring stage of being made ready.

There is pain and suffering in this world just as there is pain in childbirth. It's all because of the curse when sin entered the world through Adam.

I don't wrestle with the why.  Suffering is a part of our lives here. We all have suffering. But how do we endure to the end?

When the ache is so much it makes you go numb?

When the agony is enough to make you want this cup to pass?

When you know this is the way that God is working to conform you more into the likeness of His Son?

We groan, and we endure.

But, this is how we shift our perspective; this is how we hope: we believe in God's promises.



We see the sunshine poke through the rain clouds. Even more, we see the rainbow arch above us because of the refraction, reflection, and dispersion of the sun's light in the rain.

There are dark days, but the light illuminates promises of hope stretched across from one end of the hopeless situation to the other. 

When things in life seems hopeless; when the rain clouds come, when there is nothing left to hope for, look for the sunshine. And there you will see the rainbow.

In hope believe against hope.

Keep believing when there is no reason to hope.

In hope [Abraham] believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. {Romans 4:18-21}

When Abraham saw his own body as good as dead, he believed.

No unbelief made him waver.

When he gave the glory to God, he grew stronger in faith.

Are you groaning inwardly? Have you no reason left to hope?

Don't waver concerning God's promises.

In hope against hope believe.

Give glory to God.

Be fully convinced that God is able to do what he has promised.

Groan, but don't grow weary.

Despair, but don't give up. 

When life has left you hanging on the line, shift your perspective and you will rejoice in hope when there is no hope.

The Light always out shines the darkness. 

Look up and see the Light of the Son reflecting the glory of God.

He knows suffering and he endured because of the joy awaiting him.

He's carrying you in His nailed scarred hands.

Holding out His glorious hope while you groan in your own hopelessness.

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