Sunny Days {Against the Backdrop of Gray}…

For anyone whose ever lived on the West Coast, you will identify with winters filled with gray skies.  It comes with the territory.

But the last few days, we’ve woken up to this:

Ahhhh…. Take-my-breath-away, beautiful blue skies.  If only my photography skills could more accurately portray how beautiful it really is… {I’m still working on that.}

As I’ve been soaking up the white caps of those mountains, and how the sun shimmers on the water, I got to thinking about weather… and how it sort of symbolizes life in general.

For you know, if we never had gray days…

we wouldn’t appreciate the sunny, blue-sky ones.

If we never experienced sorrow…

we wouldn’t even know how to recognize joy.

Light itself is more vivid and visible against the back drop of “dark”.

Photography is an example of that.  It is the contrasts – the tension between light and dark – that makes a photo captivating and beautiful.

And that, is what life is, too.  I think we’d all choose sunny days over the  gray ones in life.  But in reality, it is the gray days that shape our character.  It is the gray days that teach us to make choices that aren’t always easy.  It is the gray days that cause us to grow.  It is the gray days that teach us compassion.  It is the gray days that make us grateful for the sunny ones. It is the gray days that make us realize we are totally and utterly dependant on God.

For it is only through Him that we can experience TRUE … even on the gray days.

It reminds me of an old song:

“God hath not promised skies always blue, flower strewn pathways, all the day through.

God hath not promised sun without rain, Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

  BUT God has promised…

strength for the day, Rest for the labour, light for the way

grace for the trials, help from above.”

{Lyrics by Annie Johnson Flint 1866-1932}

I don’t know what the weather is in your neck of the woods (Hopefully some sunshine is on its way!)…

But here, today, I’m rejoicing in this blue sky…

And grateful to the One who gives me breath to enjoy it.

Linking To:  Serenity Now