By a thread.

Sometimes my faith is but a single thread onto which my trembling fingers hold. Thin and stretched, I cling to it nevertheless. At a time when I should be filled with joy and child-like wonder, I feel like I am crawling on the ground gasping for air. Everywhere I look I see darkness, and I can only repeat the line from John’s Gospel that has helped me before. It is this line, this belief, I hold between my fingers when everything around me seems so dark.

             "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

Like so many others, I am struggling with the horrific events in Connecticut this week. Seeing the faces of the children, hearing the stories, my grief and bewilderment are endless. The darkness is overwhelming.

Growing up each summer on the Jersey shore, the losses from Super Storm Sandy are real. The landscape of my childhood has forever changed. The evening news showed pictures of houses I know, owned by people with familiar names. As they showed up to sift through the debris, the insurance adjusters slithered away, leaving my friends alone in the darkness.

Our economy, and the inability of our elected officials to work together without thoughts of party or power, is also dark. People out of work for years, and the gap between the haves and have not’s growing irreparably large, polarized thinking is dividing us, making room for nothing but more darkness.

I would be keeping the darkness at a safe distance if I left my reflections there, but I must face it personally in different, but equally real, ways. Security blankets are shredded, friendly bankers are turning, and I must search for the courage to put one foot in front of the other like so many others. My fear and sadness only magnify the darkness.

But in the darkness, the refrain from John’s Gospel echoes. Yes, there’s darkness, but the light is stronger. It's even made more powerful in the darkness. The thread onto which I hold is the belief that in our darkness, God came and lived among us. He did it way back when. He does it today. The light that came years ago continues to shine, even if the darkness seems to be all encompassing. It bursts through and offers comfort. In the end, it is stronger.

It always was.

It always will be.