When I was a small boy, I was for a time afraid of the dark, probably because I had such an active imagination. Now and then at night my Dad would tell me to go turn off the pump or check on the chickens or some such thing, and since it was already dark I'd have to walk 100-200 feet across a dark and forboding farm yard. We had a yard light on a fairly high pole, but it cast big shadows all over. And who knew what dangers lurked in those shadows?
One particular moonless summer night I was headed out to the barn to retrieve something and paused when I stepped into the big shadow behind our granery. I knew Dad had parked some machinery near there and didn't want to run into it and break a leg. Then I realized something was there in the shadows and I couldn't see! I waited a moment for my eyes to adjust and just at that moment something cold and slimy touched my hand...
A monster! Yikes! My heart pumped about a gallon of adrenalin and I jerked my hand away and ran like the wind, letting out a pitiful holler. I ran that 40 yard dash back to the house in record time, but not before our old dog Zeke got there ahead of me. You see, it was his wet nose I'd felt and I'm sure I scared him more than he scared me. Our old dog was a monster, and he didn't even know it! The next morning, of course, Zeke was by the front door wagging his tail, and the yard was sunny and there was no monster, and I felt a little foolish at being so frightened. It was a new day and everything was okay.
Right now some of us are feeling something cold and slimy touch us in the dark. It's a disease we have, or it's a bad relationship, or it's the ugliness of politics, or it's a shakey economy. Part of the problem is real, but part is imagined because we can't see into the shadows.
God is with us in both the night and day. Now is the time to stop and realize life is not as bad as we think it is. God, who is with us in the sunny daylight is also with us in the dark shadows of night. Same good Lord, same Friend Jesus, same caring God with His same heart of love and mercy. He who brings us through the day will also get us through the night.
We just need to trust Him and not be afraid.
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