God's Porch Light

For Family Home Evening tonight, the usual jobs were assigned: lesson, prayer, songs, treat, scripture, and activity. Tonight, Abby was on activity. Rhyetta made a great suggestion that Abby loved. We would go on a night hike. After Kian gave us a lesson (read the story of Elijah from the Old Testament), and Ella gave us our treat we headed outside for a walk. We walked up our long tree lined driveway with flashlights in hand. We decided to walk up the road to the top of a little hill where we could see for miles around. As we were walking, the stars were coming into view one by one. The crescent moon was shining brightly, and the night insects and critters were singing loudly. As we paused at the top of this small hill, we looked around and saw city lights, radio tower lights, electric windmill lights, and house lights in the distance. Rhyetta commented on how many porch lights were on indicating where people lived. There were dozens. The attention was turned to the moon and what it looked like. I commented that it is God's porch light.

How reassuring to know that we are given so many examples in our hectic, busy lives that there is One smiling upon us each night as we sleep and wind down each day. One who, as Tom Bodett coined, "Leave[s] the light on for you" and me. Even when there's a new moon and all seems dark and frightening, take a look and see what you can see. Amazingly enough, you can still make out the shape of the moon. It's not completely darkened. We are given dark moments in our lives so we can appreciate the light.

Thank goodness for these lessons nature and the Gospel give us.