Here Comes the Son

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Wow, what a week!  It is hard to believe but it feels like summer is finally here. (If you happened to miss spring this year, it happened a few weeks ago for about 10 hours.) Here we are with temperatures reaching the 80-degree mark and life is green again. The forecast calls for the warm weather to stay for a while so we can finally get the flowers planted and garden started.

For those fans of the ‘70s, I am sure you will recognize these words from the Beatles:

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right
Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right
Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear

After the kind of winter we just experienced, it does seem like years since it’s been clear. The cold and snow seem to hang on and on and yet even as gray and yucky and discouraging as those days are, we know they will not last forever. Our lives are like that sometimes. We go through a dark time and we think we will never see the light and be happy again—but here comes the Son.

No, I didn’t spell that wrong. When times are dark and it seems like life is nothing more than a long, cold, lonely winter, the Son, Jesus Christ, is there for us. In fact, he has been there for us all along; it’s simply us who got lost in the darkness. Unfortunately, it’s too easy for us to allow the dark to overtake the light. We get bogged down in the hurts and fears of life and permit them to squeeze out every bit of light that tries to creep in. Instead of permitting the dark to freeze you out of life, let the love of God illuminate and bring the warmth of the Son to your world.

Most churchgoers can recite the verses known as The Great Commission. Found in Matthew 28, they are the last words Jesus spoke to his disciples before he returned to heaven. Part of it reads:

I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20, MSG)

Look closely at the middle portion. He didn’t say Jesus would be with us only on Sundays or when we were in church or when we called on him. He said he would be with us day after day after day; in other words, he never leaves us, he is with us always. It is sad we forget that and allow the dark to overtake our lives. In the midst of our dark and dreary world, he shines the powerful light of love and brings warmth of those long summer days to our lives.

Life can seem like a cold dark winter; the saddest part of that is we so many times make it that way ourselves; we focus on the darkness instead of focusing on the Light. If your life seems to be going through a dark spell right now and you feel like you are caught up in a never-ending winter, look up. Here comes the Son!