365 Project Day 7: Light of the World

Canon 5D Mark 2, 24-70 L, 2.8  aperture, 1/60 shutter, 800 ISO

I struggled this evening to find an image that would come close to the way I was feeling. My daughter Annie lost a very dear friend to a tragic accident. He had been missing since Tuesday and was finally found today, but not alive. My heart feels like it is in a vice. I ache for this family, for his friends. For my daughter. How hard we prayed all week, hoping against all the odds for a miracle. I tried to pray, uttering words that felt so small, for his mother. For his father.

I wanted to illustrate this darkness. This tangled-up mass of earth we tread. It is a place of much pain. Heart-crushing pain that will leave us unable to find the next breath. I felt this tangibly as I lay in thorns to get this photograph. They wrapped around my ankles and scratched my knees. One punctured my finger. This is a fallen place.

I placed candles carefully in the midst of the weeds, thinking of hope. Thinking of the Light of the World. I lit them, and the wind hushed them quiet. I persevered. The light grew stronger. The red ones reminded me of my Redeemer. His price. The white ones, His glory. The weeds hovered threateningly, but could not quench the light. No, the darkness cannot quench the light. I take comfort in this.

John 1:5   “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” ( NIV version)

I love the Message Version of the same verse.

“The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn’t put it out.”

My discerning daughter Annie put it so eloquently in her blog this week, as the search for Erik was still ongoing.

“This is what I call to mind: We walk between earth and heaven, our feet planted in the sand with surges of ocean pouring over them, edging outward to eternity. There is pain here, and also glimpses of great beauty.” A wise girl, that one.

Time to rest. New mercies tomorrow.