Chariots

It’s been gorgeous weather here with brilliantly blue skies and temperatures in the 40s—just wonderful. A nice reprieve from a cold winter—the sun feels good on the face.

No matter how beautiful the weather is, we know that it won’t always stay that way, will it? Those clouds come in, and we begin to feel the colder temperatures and experience that darkness.

Maybe that is why that unexpected sun seems so good—because we’ve missed it so much. In life, it is easy to focus on the cloud cover, those feelings of leaden clouds weighing down on us, and often it seems that that oppression gets heavier and heavier, day after day. We forget the warmth of that sun or even question whether the sun is still there. All we feel is that cold and dark.

Today I stumbled on a Neal A. Maxwell quotation from another context: “In times of darkness, remember there is a difference between passing local cloud cover and general darkness.”

During our cold, dark times, we need to realize it’s probably not quite that dark, that this cloud cover will pass one day. I’m not minimizing those horrible black times of illness or sin or sorrow, but even at those bleak times, there is still a sun shining, and in time, it will break through, and we’ll feel its warmth on our faces again.

One of my favorite scripture accounts is of the young man who accompanies Elisha on the mount to see their city completely surrounded by the terrifying enemy and fearing that the next day their beloved city and inhabitants will be destroyed. The young man pleads, “What shall we do?” Then that wonderful Elisha, simply reassures, “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” Elisha prays and the young man’s eyes are opened to see the mountain full of horses and chariots and fire around Elisha (2 Kings 6:15-17).

Talk about the sun breaking through! The same happens to us. We're not alone.

We just have to keep a look out for those chariots!