Sometimes A Light Surprises

Sometimes a Light Surprises

You think the day is going to be ordinary. You do. You think that if you just put one foot in front of the other—and do it often enough—you’ll arrive at the finish line unscathed. You don’t expect wonder. You don’t expect beauty. You don’t anticipate the need to drop everything and offer praise.

But “sometimes a light surprises.”

Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings;

It is the Lord, who rises with healing in His wings;

When comforts are declining, He grants the soul again

A season of clear shining, to cheer it after rain.

Many moons ago I had a vinyl album by gospel singer Cynthia Clawson called The Way I Feel. I think I wore it out on the turntable, it held so many beautiful songs. One of them was an arrangement of the hymn “Sometimes a Light Surprises” by William Cowper. It began with the slow pull of a bow across the strings of a cello—a mournful sound. Then it built and built into a crescendo of fully orchestrated praise. I loved the music, but it was years before I really understood the words.

Sometimes a light surprises. Once, as I was driving along Interstate 10, the sky seemed to catch fire near a little town called Flatonia, Texas. The late afternoon light collided with something in the lower atmosphere that caused the clouds to combust over the local Dairy Queen . . . and I pulled into the parking lot, drove around back, climbed out of the car, and pulled up the camera on my phone. Because while my heart was turning somersaults, my mind was calmly advising, You’ll want to remember this.

I pointed the camera skyward . . . but what I really wanted to do that afternoon was fall on my knees. I wanted to kneel on the solid earth there in ordinary Flatonia, because glory doesn’t visit the interstate every day. Or maybe it does, but I’m just not positioned to see. On this day, my heart and my eyes were peeled, and I saw.

Sometimes a light surprises. But when it does, will we stop and take it in?

The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

Psalm 19:1-2, NASB