When The Sun Shines Through

I’ve been thinking lately about getting a tattoo.

Not that I’m going to.

But if I did… what would I get? 

The other day, I looked up “clouds with the sun coming out of them”.

Dealing with anxiety/depression feels a whole lot like this.

The clouds come.

Sometimes they hover.

They stay longer than we want them too.

The storms brew.

The rain falls.

And then they pass.

And the whole time? 

Up above those clouds?

The sun shines.

The sky is blue.

There is a reality in all of this that I so often forget.

Resting in the storm can be so hard to do.

Believing that it will pass and the sun will shine again can sometimes feel impossible.

And yet, it does.

And when it does? 

Oh man, the beauty.

It can seem so bright.

Like walking out of a dark room into the light.

Squinting.

Adjusting.

Ready to see again.

Believing again.

Laughing and dreaming again.

Oh, I almost forgot.

The beauty when the sun shines bright through those clouds.

Happens more than I know.

In my own life.

People say things about my “bright smile” or the light in my eyes.

All the while I might be feeling a whole lot differently on the inside.

The rays come through.

I believe it’s God who shines through.

In colors that could never be produced if there were no clouds.

So… when Cris sent me this picture today? 

~ Again… I will NOT be getting a tattoo… I’m at the age where it would start sagging all too soon. ~

But the beauty in those rays?

The stunning sky in which God paints these pictures to remind us?

He is here.

He is real.

He shines bright through each one of us.

Let the clouds roll on in.

Abide in Him as the storm passes through.

Believing all the while…

There is beauty in the brokenness.