Sunshine and Shadows

This has been a day of constant change from sunshine to shadows. The weather prediction was just as flexible . . . rain or snow.

As I tried to study at my kitchen table, I was aware of the constant shift from sunshine to shadow to sunshine and back again. Around noon I thought sunshine had won, but later in the afternoon, rain clouds were the victors.

This weather pattern reminded me of a song my dad sang when I was a child. I can hear him now, strumming his guitar and singing *Back of the clouds the sun is always shining, after the storms, your skies will all be blue; God has prepared a rosy-tinted lining, back of the clouds it’s waiting to shine through.

When something blocks light rays, it creates a shadow. Children seem to enjoy man-made shadow plays. A light is shined behind a curtain and shapes block the light, creating shadows as a storyteller brings them to life.

We have no such control over nature’s shadow plays, but we each become our own storytellers by how we react to the shadowy events in our lives.

Faith in God is what enables me to endure. I choose to believe the sunshine of God’s love is waiting to shine beyond life’s shadows, and in His good time, it does.

Psalm 23:4 mentions the valley of the shadow of death. I experienced that with a Stage III cancer diagnosis along with Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC) in 2007. I kept my faith strong through prayer and daily Bible reading. In fact, many verses in The Book of Psalms became prayers to Almighty God.

Life’s shadows have many shapes. Some are created by limited finances or loss of a job, others by threat of divorce or sudden loss of a loved one due to illness or accident.

Are you in a shadow just now? 

Here’s a little prayer for sunshine, based on Psalm 33:22: May the sunshine of your unfailing love rest upon me, Lord, even as I put my hope in You and wait for this shadow to pass over.

*Back of the Clouds, Carolyn R. Freeman, Christian Service Songs, P. 178, Published by The Rodeheaver Co., Chicago, USA, 1939, Song Copyrighted by Rodeheaver, 1931.