Rays of Sunshine

I am so thankful for those moments God gives us that are like rays of sunshine peeking through the storm clouds. Because if I may be so bold as to say it...this year, 2011, has been a stormy, difficult year. And in many ways the storm clouds don't appear to be clearing any time soon.

I know, I know...I don't like saying it. But don't we all have stormy seasons of life? Times that we wish we could just skip over. Times that we hope someday we'll be able to look back on and see that God was moving, even though in the midst of it He feels so distant?

Some of our storms are obvious; like moving 2000 miles across country and our 3rd deployment looming over our heads. But we have other storms lingering as well, storms that we aren't likely to openly talk about...family illnesses, marriage difficulties, and child behavior issues.

I guess I want to talk a little bit about our storms (without going into too much detail) because at times I get the feeling that our life looks a little too "picture perfect." JP is a wonderful photographer and captures some of our most beautiful moments, but in reality we are like every other family...one sinner married to another sinner raising sinful children in a very sinful and fallen world. Storms happen...

...but so do rays of sunshine...

...and that's what the above pictures above represent. We spent an afternoon in Seattle the other day going to the Pacific Science Center having a blast looking at the Star Wars Display, playing dinosaurs, exploring all the great hands on activities, and discovering butterflies in the butterfly garden.

Then we went to the public market down by the Puget Sound and indulged ourselves...indulged ourselves in chocolate covered cherries that tasted heavenly, locally grown apples that dripped with sweetness, fresh shrimp cocktail that reminded us why we love living so close to the ocean, and my favorite indulgence: flowers the color of sunshine picked out by my sweet girl especially for me.

The moment she saw the flowers she just had to pick out a bouquet and her face absolutely lit up, and she knew exactly which ones she wanted. And it was a moment of sheer delight for me to accept them from her. You see, our sweet sunshine has a very difficult time with moves, and most days recently a small storm cloud has been following her around. And we're never quite sure when the lightning is going to strike and the thunder roll; we're just sure it's going to happen more often than not. It was this way when we moved from Tennessee to Kentucky...and it wasn't fun...and it wasn't short...but she finally came around; and now we're back at it again, trying to poke holes through those storm clouds for her, pointing out the rays of sunshine God is providing for us here, and praying the Son rolls those clouds away permanently and quickly...

...but in the mean time, we'll soak up the sun for all it's worth when it appears confident that we are not walking alone...that Olivia is not walking alone...that the Son loves us, is protecting us, and is using these storms to shape all of us into His image for His glory...