BRIGHT TREASURES OF DARKNESS

“[God] reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies hidden in darkness.”

Daniel 2:22

When my fourth-grade teacher distributed the fat black cray-ons, instructing us to completely blacken out our artwork, I balked. Paisley rainbows filled my paper—alongside flower petals, feathers, and stars. I loved my picture just as it was, so why blot it out?

I didn’t know we’d be scratching through the greasy, opaque layer with popsicle sticks, and that I’d see my beautiful colors wondrously reappearing with each stroke.

Discouragement often extinguishes what we love. It snuffs out mystery and wonder. Maybe a parent dismisses our passions, a teacher criticizes our creativity, even our friends misunderstand our dreams.

Such events seem to deface our original, God-given palette still glowing beneath.

Let’s peel them all away!

Like colored scarves pulled from a clown’s sleeve, if we’re willing, God will draw out our pain as well as our buried yearnings.

If gloom has overlaid your hopes, wait upon God to reveal what’s underneath.—Laurie Klei

#women #Bible