Sometimes You Need to Let the Sun Shine In!

There are times when the best thing you can do for yourself

is to take a moment away from your daily duties, and just go to a sunny window

and let the sunshine pour into your heart.

 Sometimes if you are feeling low, you need to just pour yourself a cup of tea,

and sit down beside a beautiful flower,

 as much as beside your Bible.

 There are times when you are in the middle of your daily duties,

and suddenly you are in the middle of a bunch of pain that belongs to the past. 

And it is suddenly too heavy for you.

You know you need to go lay it at the feet of Christ.

You bow your head, but it's too heavy for you. So you get up and go to your room and close the door.

And everything inside you is wanting to fall on your face and cry out to God--

But you remember how far that gets you. 

How often hasn't the icy grip of the devil's thumb made the weight only heavier as you

bow in your heartache and tears spill over?

Somehow things just seem to turn around for you far more quickly when you just step over to your sunny window and pause in the warmth of the sunshine, 

and wait in the warm, silent presence of God,

and then lift up your head and look for the birds.

 Something seems to happen when you let the sun shine in. 

Because there are always going to be those moldy pumpkins that the boys carved faces in, and then left on their dresser till they almost melted into a puddle. 

And then pieces of the rotten pumpkin got left on your floor under the ironing board,

and yellow stains are on your carpet.

 How many times have messes been left on your floor or in your car or in your back yard or at your back door that 

did not belong to you?

Muddy boot prints that did not belong to you.

Slimy old banana skins that certainly did not belong to you.

 And all those things that don't belong to you 

just somehow anyway leave you deep, deep down 

in the black pool of depression or discouragement.

 But there is always the possibility of joy.

 The same ice that was in the grip of the enemy

can make a beautiful pattern on the glass--especially when exposed to the sunshine.

 There will always be those days when toilets need fixing,

 and when you are on your hands and knees looking for the new little kitty's toilet,

that kitty that you tried to insist had to stay out of the house,

searching behind the freezer, behind the washer, and behind the dryer,

and trying to figure out where in the laundry room the stink is coming from.

 There are some things you can clean up and some things you just can't--

because they don't belong to you.

But you can always choose the possibility of joy.

You can choose to remain under the slimy dripping of Yellowstone National Park's Devil's Thumb,

or bloom in the sunshine.

It's you who choose about the guilt trips and the black holes.

                                        

Choose to linger a little longer in the sunshine,

and let the warmth of God's love quiet your spirit.