Out of the Darkness

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So let me start by saying that if you made it through the last round of review books and are still following, you deserve a prize. I am trying to catch up on review books, so that combined with the fact that I don't really enjoy writing the reviews that much and you have a procrastination problem that results in a stack of six books waiting to be written about. But now I am caught up and ready to write something else.

Yesterday, I dug out my geraniums that I had stuck in a box in the basement. It's such a sad combination of dead leaves and albino looking shoots of new growth, but hidden away in that box was that bloom you see above. How does that happen? How in the darkness and cold of a cardboard box can beauty spring forth? It's amazing to me that shoots will start to grow, but a flower? 

And what about  me? Do I bloom in the darkness or do I become like the dead leaves: brittle, easily unhinged, and ugly inside and out? This is a question I am not sure I want to evaluate too deeply for fear of the answer.

But what makes a person bloom in the darkness? Why are some of the sweetest people the ones who have gone through the hardest circumstances? And how do I become like that? Do I have to go through hard things to be refined? 

I think one of the reasons people bloom in the darkness is they know where their help comes from and they claim that help each and every day, each and every moment. I know I fully underestimate the power of the Holy Spirit and rely way too much on myself and my ideas and my thoughts for how life should operate. And quite frankly, I don't always want the help, I want to mope around for a bit, but that is not the way of the flower. A flower looks for the light and shines brightly when all around is dark and brittle.

That is what I want to do, I want to shine even in darkness. I want to reflect Jesus when all the world is against me. I want to reflect joy in the midst of sadness. I want to have peace in the midst of conflict. And so I will continue to press on and to press in to Jesus and to looking to Him and to allowing His character to reflect in my life. 

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