Sun Breaks

Sun breaks are one of life’s simplest joys. They can almost make you feel like you’ve found a forgotten twenty-dollar bill in your coat pocket—on a day when you’re really craving a double Caramel Macchiato, but you’ve already spent your latte budget for the week.

I’m blessed to have a home office with four large windows, so I’ve been especially enjoying sun breaks these past few weeks while our Seattle weather has been crazy! We’ve experienced: dark and gloomy overcast skies, hail, rain, wind, snow, and sunshine. Sometimes all of them more than once in the same day!

When the sun makes an appearance, it can bring with it renewed energy and a changed attitude. It has the ability to brighten a person’s spirits and outlook on almost anything.

The weather, in so many ways, reflects life. The other night I drove twenty minutes to our church for a service and a worship team rehearsal. When I left home the sun was shining. By the time I arrived at the church, pea-sized hail pelted and covered the ground. Later, I drove home in snow so blinding that without the reflective yellow bumps in the middle of the road, I would have had a difficult time driving knowing where the road curved. Shortly before arriving home, the snow stopped. The next morning, I awoke to blue skies and sunshine.

There may be times when we feel like we’re getting pelted—beat up—with not hail, but the hard stuff that happens in life. We experience job loss, financial instability, health problems, and maybe even the death of a loved one.

There may also be times—just like driving in that snow storm—when we struggle finding our way and need a little help or guidance.

And then we experience a sun break.

Maybe a career opportunity is presented, a new medicine is affective, or we just feel better when friends offer their love and support.

Today—the day I’m posting this article—is Good Friday. The day Christians remember the sacrifice Jesus made by dying on the cross. The skies reflected what was happening in the world that night….

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. (Luke 23:44-46 NIV)

My favorite worship service is held on Good Friday. I like it even better if it falls on a dark and stormy evening because it helps me go there—at the foot of the cross. It’s a time when I think, more than any other, about what Christ suffered on my behalf.

But we’re never left in the dark for long, because on Easter morning, we experience a wonderful sun break. And we’re reminded that “He has risen!” (Luke 24:6 NIV).

Christ has risen. He has risen indeed.

Have a blessed Easter … and a fabulous week.

Dawn