Confession.  Before last week I had never flown on a commercial jet. Crazy, right-?   I’m a home body with a passion for road trips…what can I say.  Last week Nathan and I left the snow and ice behind and flew south to Dallas, Texas for a tire dealer conference for our family business.  While I desperately longed for some time away with my love, I was so unsure if I would be able to make the trip comfortably…I mean before that I was not leaving the house much, let alone the state.

As we were getting ready to leave our beloved West Michigan (heaven knows I am mitten smitten) and begin our trip to the Lone Star State we were sitting on the plane at the gate and it was so snowy they had to de-ice our plane…twice!

When the weather outside is frightful…yikes!

We took off a little later than we had planned but once we made our way through the clouds I was at once overwhelmed with what I saw.  A beautiful, glorious, blinding sunshine was waiting over the clouds of the winter storm below.  In an area that only sees an average of sunshine just over a third of the time in the winter months, it’s like I forget it’s there sometimes.  I was in awe.

As I looked out over all that God had made, it really hit me that even with all the clouds looming over my head right now…some that seem to push darkness into my very soul…there is an everlasting Light always faithfully shining…even if my heart can’t always see it.  I was so encouraged.  I felt hope rise within me…something I have been…and continue to struggle with.  I look back at these photos and I am reminded of what God so graciously showed me that day.

Another confession.  Sometimes in this thick of this difficulty it is hard to see the Light.  Hope can be so hard to find.  But the Son is always shining, friends…even if we can’t see Him.  On those dark days of the bleak mid-winter I must choose to rest in the blessed assurance that a land of no more pain and no more tears awaits me.  They say it is always darkest just before the dawn.  This is why I cannot give up.  My Rescuer is coming from somewhere over the clouds.  Until then, in His strength, I press on.

So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.  You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.  For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay.  But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.”  But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.  Hebrews 10:35-39

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 3:14