In what ways do we experience the tender light of God’s mercy breaking through to us in our seasons of darkness?
I have been through several “dark nights of the soul,” times when no matter what I did, no matter how hard I tried, no matter the effort to get out of a dark place that was either self-imposed or imposed upon me, nothing would budge me even an inch. I think of those times as “cocoon seasons,” when something deep is being worked within us, but we don’t yet have eyes to see what we will become.
It can be hard to wait for God while we are living in the dark. Hard to live through seasons of feeling the weight of hoping for more, the exhaustion of grasping for freedom, the angst of waiting for the right time, when everything will just finally click into place.
But sometimes the gift we need is the dark, learning to trust for the appointed One to come. For the pathway of peace comes to us as a gift of grace at the right time when we are ready to walk, to fly, to run and to embrace all that comes with it, when we are ready for the light to see it.
God of mercy, continue to lighten our darkness and inspire us in our cocoon times. Amen. —