Every day, I want to write about the morning sky.

The gray slowly turning to color. The fading of the stars. The winter trees a pencil sketch against the rising light.

The sky has its own language, and it reaches me, a display of God’s eternal power and divine nature. (Romans 1:20)

The sky is always changing–a continual transformation. But it is the morning sky that stirs me most. A rhythm of majesty every day. A certainty of triumph no matter how dark the night.

We finally got our Christmas tree up, and I love the cheerful glow of light. During the day, it looks somewhat disheveled, its imperfections evident. But in the evening and early morning, it is a flawless instrument to display the twinkling lights.

In the darkness, it is magical.

A lifetime of happy memories swirls in my heart at Christmas–so many light-filled moments to cherish. Now mixed in there is this leavening, this sobering throb of pain. It is impossible to separate them–gratefulness for the rich blessing that surrounds me, and an awareness of aching loss.

Dark and light both present in my deepest place.

I think of Mary and Joseph and a small baby crying. A darkened stable filled with both wonder and doubt, both joy and fear. The God-child entering a blackened world because of love.

And a star shedding just enough light so the wise men can find their way.

Inside me a light arises, a soft glow of truth. A lifting, an acknowledging, a reckoning. Like candlelight and tree lights and starlight. Soft and gentle and flickering, bright against the darkest night. Enough to help me find my way.

It would not shine so brightly in the daylight.

The darkness is the perfect showcase for the rising light.

To give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the Sunrise from on high will visit us to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Luke 1:77-79

Light arises in the darkness for the upright. Psalm 112:4

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12