Light through the Underpass

Yesterday morning as I was driving to worship, I was going under an overpass when I saw a beautiful sight. I saw the light streaming down through the trees and a light haze illuminated the sun’s rays. The trees along the road were in silhouette and the morning sun shone brightly on the wet pavement. It was so beautiful that I just kept driving. But as I got near to where I needed to turn to get to the church, I felt a need to go back. So, a quick couple of u-turns got me back under the overpass and this time I pulled over, turned on my hazard lights, and got out to take a picture and to take the moment in a little bit. Of course, I was stopped along a busy road so I couldn’t take too long. What I felt was that I needed to stop yesterday. Not just that I wanted a nice picture but I needed to stop to take it in more than I did as I drove along at 45 mph.

In this moment, I felt the message of how sometimes we need to be in a dark place in order to see the fullest of the light. As soon as I got out from under the overpass, the way that the light shone through changed significantly from what it had been. The last few days, I’ve been reading devotions from the first two chapters of Habakkuk and there’s a similar sense there of being in a place of the darkness waiting to see the light. Sometimes, the light is obvious even in those dark places. Sometimes the light is far from those places under the overpass and it is up to us to bring the light. And sometimes I need to turn around to spend a bit more time in the dark in order to see the light.