The Firefly

The tears flowed from her face as her steps fell in a slow pace. She was walking down that same road she'd walked so many times. The June twilight loomed around her, and though, walking a rural, gravel road with darkness slowly stretching over the sky was not the safest thing to do, it was the only thing that brought her solace. She inhaled the fresh country, summer evening breeze, and tried to cleanse her body from the dim feelings that were invading her very soul. This was as terrible as it could be, she was sure of it, this was what rock bottom felt like. She'd reached a point of no return in her life. The events of this evening had shaped not only the rest of that day, but her tomorrow and all her tomorrows thereafter.

She passed over a small stream, and with the moisture came a swarm of mosquitoes. They buzzed about her and as they landed she furiously swatted feeling that even nature itself was surrounding and attacking her.

Suddenly, a mysterious, little, ugly beetle landed on her arm. She lifted her hand to swat it too, but then she paused the ugly bug suddenly glowed. It gone from ugliness to beauty in a matter of seconds. It left her arm and joined a huge light show in the bean field directly before her.

It was now completely night. It was not city dark, but country dark. The kind of inkiness that makes it difficult to see your hand in front of you, or the path that leads you to safety. But, she was not afraid, because in front of her, amidst the greatest blackness that had ever enveloped her, shown the most beautiful lights. Gleaming and blinking in the ebony.

Even when we believe that we've reached our lowest points, Christ is a light to us in the midst of sorrow and darkness.

"Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." - John 8:12

Dedicated to my sister, Rachel.