Resurrection, Reflections, Rainclouds

Most days in spring, darker rainclouds can be spotted in the skies. Throughout the day, rain falls, as the clouds move and change form across the sky. And yet through the shifting rainclouds, the sun usually shines. There are moments when it is blocked and its light rays can be seen on the edges of the clouds, and there are moments where the clouds move aside and then sun shines in all its brilliance, casting its light everywhere.

As I have been taking more time to stop and notice beauty around me outside, I have been playing with sunlight in some of my photos. As I have captured light shining through trees and flowers and through the clouds, I have been inspired. I have been filled with hope. I have had a profound understanding that although life doesn't always make sense the beauty displayed reflects a Creator who can be trusted and praised for His faithfulness. 

As I had been preparing for Easter this year, I had been reflecting much on hope and its implications in my own life. I came across this quote in one of my books for school and had to reread it continually and have been reflecting on its depth of truth and the hope it gives of living into the resurrection:

"The resurrection is not an abandonment of the cross but the incorporation of the suffering of the cross into the resurrection itself. As we bring to the life of prayer all that has ever happened to us, we find that nothing finally is wasted. Rather than casting off unwanted parts of our selves, we find instead that childhood pain, adult humiliation, experiences of joy, our own treacheries, confusion, loss- all are gathered in and somehow healed and transformed. We become able to look at our own past with love. Where we saw before only a wasteland of pain, now we see rich farmlands sown and watered by God's grace, bearing crops that become for us the very means of our love." -Roberta Bondi (from 'To Pray & to Love')

I am so thankful for hope. And I am beyond grateful for the ways in which God has been creating rich farmlands in my own life for the purpose of love. There is hope for healing and wholeness. There is purpose to pain (even if I don't understand all the details). Thankful for life, victory and hope in Christ's resurrection and that I can live within those truths. I love that creation reflects these truths about who God is and when I feel overwhelmed in the struggle and with countless questions, I can marvel at God's greatness, my own finiteness and respond in worship and trust in the midst of my circumstances and questions.