I am generally a positive person, known in my family as an optimist. I’m a silver-lining, glass-half-full kind of girl. But Marissa’s cancer hit me pretty hard. The swirling thoughts just didn’t settle into normally pleasant patterns. There was so much bad that it was hard to wrap my mind around the good. There was no escaping to my happy place. I needed more than optimism, more than positive thinking, more than myself. I needed God.

I started this blog to chronicle our journey through this trial but especially to see God’s hand, to notice His work, to trace His goodness. To find Him present when we felt alone. To know His love in the midst of fear. To settle our thoughts in His truth.

This is Thanksgiving week. My favorite time of the year. And while this has been one of the hardest periods of my life, it has also been one of the richest. Maybe there is no explanation for how the beautiful things are enhanced during dark times, but maybe there is. Maybe it’s God. Maybe He is enabling us to see light in the middle of darkness.

Light arises in the darkness for the upright; He is gracious and compassionate and righteous. Psalm 112:4

In the darkness, He is gracious. In the darkness, He is compassionate. In the darkness, He is righteous. In the darkness, He gives light.

So we are grateful, so grateful. We are thankful for each other. We are thankful for all the wonderful gifts we have received–for home and shelter, for physical needs met, for friends and family who have walked beside us and helped us through, for simple comfort, for daily joy.

But most of all, we are thankful for the Light.