Light in the Darkenss

 Today is a very special day for me, it is Veteran's Day. A day that honors all men and women in the Military who did something incredibly reckless out of love for total strangers: they offered their lives.

These are ordinary men and women who through daily discipline, honor of their word, and commitment to the people they protect, become extraordinary givers of life to the people in their country. Many times they return from deployment with downcast eyes, nightmares of what they saw, feeling totally disconnected with the family they have not seen in months or a year or more, and connecting with their family becomes even more challenging as they have endured things we would never even want to imagine. A hug can be startling, loud noises can be jarring, and nights become dark moments where one prays for the light of the morning to shine. For that, each man and woman who is a Veteran is truly heroic in their actions. They are willing to be martyred, knowingly, when they are deployed and face a risk of no return... out of pure love. 

This morning, I was walking, and I was thinking about the shadows we each have. A dear aunt of mine has told me frequently that each of us has light, but each of us has a shadow... and no doubt about it, there are so many shadows that can seem endless if we see only the darkness. I stood in the sunshine gazing amazed at the fall leaves that had fallen on the ground with deep long shadows before them. Each leaf was bright in color, and each shadow dark in tone. 

Do you see more light, or more shadows?

How many times do each of us, in all of the beauty and brilliance we were created to be, fall, like an autumn leaf and lay there on the ground of life feeling that this is as low as we can go....facing the shadow we see only darkness, without realizing that to our back, there is a great light shining on us, featuring our intricate details with which we have been so lovingly created by God's own fingers... Your nose, your eyebrows, your fingertips, your breath, your ability to think and heartbeat are all the brilliance of your being, and were created in total love... 

Just like the leaves fall, God allows for us to fall sometimes so that His light can shine more powerfully through us and outline the shadows: they each have a beginning and and end. There is no darkness that is eternal within us because He created us to reflect His image. 

Why does this matter on Veteran's Day? Well, my father is a Veteran of war who has an incredibly sensitive heart, love for others the size of the moon, and a unique war story to tell that has cast shadows because he gave his life, out of love for the people of his nation. Him, like so many other Veterans, have uniquely dark shadows. Praise God, my dad has seen the limits of those dark moments and has been covered by the brilliant light of Jesus.

For all Veterans of war...Mary, mother of God, pray for us.

We each in a way carry battle wounds from life, and when we fall, may we not see only the shadow in front of us, but as John Denver said, "Sunshine on My Shoulders" and realize that the light of truth of who we are (beloved children of God) and the light of truth shines stronger and more eternally than any limit of shadows that might haunt us.