son shine

My daughter Kristen and her husband live in Portland, Oregon. There is a three hour time difference between here and there so phone calls are a little confusing when considering the best times to call. Kristen got out of work early today and called me. It was two-thirty my time. We chatted while she was driving the short distance to her home, and when she went through her front door I heard her on the phone while she greeted her cat, Skipper. Skipper has been a bit mischievous lately and I told Kristen not to be so lovey with her cat until she assessed the damages he may have done while she was gone for the day. She felt fairly confident that he had been a good kitty since he was not immediately at the door when she opened it , meaning he was probably being very docile and most likely been snoozing until he heard the sound of her coming through the door. I said to her that he had probably been asleep in a sunbeam somewhere.
“What’s that?” she quickly replied. “A sunbeam” I repeated. “The sun doesn’t shine here,” she continued, “It’s always rainy and overcast.” I described to her how it was freezing cold her with snow on the ground, yet the skies were clear and the sun was shining brightly. Since Kristen and Ric moved to Portland almost two years ago, the weather has been a constant complaint from them. It is lush and green in Portland with misty rain on the majority of days. Kristen even told me that they never get a good thunder and lightning storm to blow through. It just always rains. Dreary.
I can imagine a day without sunshine – we get those in Michigan. It gets awfully depressing when we get too many of them. But today – well that bright sunshine kept the interior of my van warm and made the wind and cold temperature not so apparent. The sunshine is cheerful.
If you live your life walking in faith with Jesus … well … He is like sunshine. No matter how cold or rough a day you may be having, if you just let God shine a little Son on you – it makes things a whole lot better. After the rather challenging past month we’ve had with Amanda in the hospital, I can say that it feels good to relax in the Son. Oh I know God was with us through those dreary hospital days. But those challenging days were each like a cloudy to partly cloudy day. I knew God was there, but I kept Him hidden behind the clouds of worry and fear. Sometimes a ray of sonshine broke through and we were warmed and re-energized for the changing climate to come.
God is always there although we may hide Him behind the dark clouds of life. Well now we just have to learn to keep those clouds pushed aside so we can bask in the warmth and light of the Son!
I also wish I was a cat so I could do this: