Fifty shades of mountain grey...

Fifty shades of mountain gray…
It was gloaming, just after sunset and yet still not dark, when I began the drive to Tennessee over the “new” four lane highway. It had been a rainy afternoon and the pavement glistened. Mountains rose from seas of clouds, dark grey islands in the sky surrounded by pale lavender pearl gray mist. In the distance, row after row of mountains rippled, a blue gray ruffle next to the darker brown gray sky. As the road climbed the tall mountains, I drove into a cloud on top of Sam’s Gap, the highest point, and was wrapped in its lovely light blocking opacity, a pale grey quilt of air and water. I drove through the gap and began the downward slide towards Tennessee as the cloud quilt lifted. On my right, the large luminescent full moon played hide and seek on the mountain as it began its journey through the night skies. Now I see it…now I don’t. So close to the earth, so perfectly round, the moon cast its’ spell of bewitching light on and in and through the clouds, changing dark grey to fifty different shades of mountain grey.
Spring and summer are the seasons of sunlight, warmth and new growth. Autumn and winter honor the moon, its’ cool light illuminates the darkness within and without. The moon seasons call me to a deeper understanding of my search for light in my life. The shortened exterior time of light leads me into my interior darkness, a time of reflection that cannot come when I am surrounded by light. In these seasons of darkness, I am reminded of all the many ways God comes into my life.
Bible verses learned as a child…The Lord is my light…Thy word is a lamp to my feet…God said, “Let there be light”… Arise, shine, for thy light is come… I am the light of the world… give me assurance of God’s light in my life even when surrounded by fifty shades of mountain grey. There is something I can do, a way to be that can connect me to the Source of Light in my life, a baby born into darkness that brought light to my world, a reflection of the Eternal Light in a man named Jesus. Like the moon playing hide and seek in the mountain tops, I lose sight of my light from time to time. But if I wait, if I keep on looking, like the Wise Ones of old, I will follow the light that is a pale reflection of the one whose Love Light wraps me in warmth and holds me close to the heart of all being.