Dear New Philly Family,
On Wednesday night, as I was taking our dog out before we all went to bed, I noticed that it was unusually bright for 11:15. I looked up and remembered that it was a “supermoon”, the last one of 2020. A supermoon occurs when the moon is in its closest approach to Earth in orbit. The moon will appear brighter and bigger in the night sky. And it certainly did on Wednesday.
As I stood there in the backyard, admiring the brightness and beauty of the supermoon, I was amazed at the way the light came through the branches of the tree I was standing under. The light of the moon peeked through the gaps in the leaves; it made the green of the leaves even greener; it made the dark of the night brighter.
That morning, I had read the Daily Texts and found this verse: “I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground.”( Isaiah 42:16). Standing outside later that same day, I knew exactly what it meant. I was literally seing what I had read about just a few short hours before.
This is what God is doing right now- God is turning the darkness that surrounds us into light. The light is peaking through the darkness of our world and making everything brighter. God is using this time of pandemic- of sickness and fear and doubt- to show us the light. The light of healing and faith and hope. The light that is actually always there, we just don’t stop to see it.
In the words of one of my favorite songs, God is saying to us, “I, the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard my people cry. All who dwell in deepest sin, my hand will save. I who made the stars of night, I will make their darkness bright. Who will bear my light to them? Whom shall I send?”
God has heard our cries and he is offering us salvation. God is making our darkness bright and is calling us to share that light with the world. People are wanting to know “What can we do? How can we help?” What we can do is look for the light of God that is shining all around us. We can allow the light that is shining for us to shine through us, to peek through us into the darkness of this world. We can bring healing, we can share faith, we can be hope. We are called not only to bear God’s light to the world, we are called to BE God’s light in this world.
When I look at you, my New Philly family, I see the light of God. I see healing, I see faith, I see hope, I see love. Right now, I miss seeing you. But I know that the light and love of God is still shining through you. For we don’t have to see it to feel it.
Pastor Joe
