Darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day

The phone jangled me awake at 4 am a few mornings ago. I fumbled around, picked up the receiver. A parishioner was having a medical emergency. Could I go to the hospital? Of course, and so I headed off into the dark pre-dawn morning.

I stayed with our parishioner while nurses and doctors did their work. She was stable, out of danger. We prayed, and she looked in need of rest. I walked outside the hospital to get some air at 6 am.

The sky was a rich dark royal blue, and a crescent moon hovered a few degrees above the horizon. The dark part of the moon was as visible as the shining crescent. Venus hung nearby, just above the moon.

The words of Psalm 139:11 came rushing through my mind: "Darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day; darkness and light to you are both alike."

I did not have a camera, so I found the photo above on the internet that someone else took the other morning. It is a close approximation, but only an approximation. Here is the psalm. Blessings on your day. . .

Psalm 139 Domine, probasti

1 LORD, you have searched me out and known me; *
you know my sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.

2 You trace my journeys and my resting-places *
and are acquainted with all my ways.

3 Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, *
but you, O LORD, know it altogether.

4 You press upon me behind and before *
and lay your hand upon me.

5 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; *
it is so high that I cannot attain to it.

6 Where can I go then from your Spirit? *
where can I flee from your presence?

7 If I climb up to heaven, you are there; *
if I make the grave my bed, you are there also.

8 If I take the wings of the morning *
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

9 Even there your hand will lead me *
and your right hand hold me fast.

10 If I say, "Surely the darkness will cover me, *
and the light around me turn to night,"

11 Darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day; *
darkness and light to you are both alike.

12 For you yourself created my inmost parts; *
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

13 I will thank you because I am marvelously made; *
your works are wonderful, and I know it well.

14 My body was not hidden from you, *
while I was being made in secret
and woven in the depths of the earth.

15 Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb;
all of them were written in your book; *
they were fashioned day by day,
when as yet there was none of them.

16 How deep I find your thoughts, O God! *
how great is the sum of them!

17 If I were to count them, they would be more in number
than the sand; *
to count them all, my life span would need to
be like yours.