Dawn is Breaking

Up before the sun this morning. Which sounds more impressive than it is at this time of year in Scotland. 

The dawn was breaking – that grey prelude to the day, at 7 when I stood in my prayer alcove and surveyed the familiar fields. I noticed that though the sun had not yet risen, the light showing on the tree trunks was lighter on the side facing east than on the other side. Gradually, though, the difference disappeared and the trunks were equally bathed in light.

But not every part. There are pockets of darkness in the intertwining trunks and branches, pockets which may well never see the light of day at all. In those pockets, one imagines, reside many nefarious creatures whose legless or alternatively many-legged forms writhe and scurry into deeper darkness as the dawn breaks. 

Jesus said that whatever is hidden will one day be revealed. There will come a day when the darkness will not be able to hide anything, when all will be revealed in the light of the glory of the coming King. That is a day to be joyfully anticipated, but in the meantime we are here for a purpose. We are here to let our light, the light of Christ within us, shine before others so they can see God and give him the glory.

Yesterday I had the privilege of serving in the local food bank for a couple of hours. It’s a job which can be acutely boring as not that many people come in. But the last two times I have had divine appointments with people who have sunk into the dark crevasses of life and are needing a helping hand out of them. A couple of guys winning the battle against drug dependency, and a guy whose life was derailed by his wife’s death and his subsequent sinking into alcohol. My prayer is that as they encountered us in the food bank, they were drawn more fully away from the strong temptations that may haunt them for life, drawn out of the dark and into the light.

May God bless all those whose life experiences have plunged them into pits of despair which led them to seek solace wherever they could. And may God bless us with generosity of spirit and depth of compassion, fuelled by the Holy Spirit, that we may be a blessing to whoever we encounter today.

So, it’s not yet 8 am and I am spiritually fed and watered and ready for whatever or whoever this day brings my way. So glad I can go into the day with Jesus. God bless you.