One of my pastors created a Facebook page called Contemplative Photography, a place for its page members to post their own photos.  I learned about it almost a year ago and immediately joined the group.  I am not a professional photographer nor is that a requirement for the group.  The point of the group is to “receive” photos, a visual way to pay attention to God in your daily life and share it with others.

Last week at breakfast, Cody said, “Oh, look!  Half the sky is gray and half is sunny.”  If you had drawn a line down the middle of the window, one half would have been completely overcast with dark gray, misty cloud cover and the other half shining with bright blue sky and a few wispy white clouds.  I quickly grabbed my phone and went on the deck to photograph it.  I posted it to the Contemplative Photography page with this thought:

“Like life, some days we get sunny, blue skies; some days we get dark gray, cloudy skies. And some days we get a combination of the two. Maybe most days it’s a combination of the two.“

And I have thought about that combination – of blue skies and gray clouds – several times since then.  I contemplated how glorious those brilliant blue, cloudless-sky days are.  We had one just the other day, with almost unbelievable deep blues.

I’ve also thought about how infrequent those skies are, literally and metaphorically.  On most of our days, we may say it was a sunny day but the odds of absolutely no clouds are extremely low.

Then there are the days that are so overcast that we have to turn the lights on hours earlier than usual.  But most days, we have a mix of sun and clouds, in our skies and in our lives.

Continuing with that metaphor, I thought about the things that bring me a ray of sunshine no matter how dark the storm clouds are that hang over me.

Things like Cody blowing me kisses as he hops out of the car at school in the morning.

My husband bringing me a plate of fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies.

A friend texting me to look outside my window at some cool morning colors.

Pink sky – the house across the street is white

These pictures have all been taken this week, within three days of each other, and while it hasn’t been especially warm, the weather has been pretty nice – unlike this week last year, pictures of which popped up as my Facebook memories several times this week.

Pictures of snow. 

Pictures of flakes floating through the air around my still-blooming hibiscus. 

Of inches of snow piled on my painted pumpkins.

That little orange and white circle peeking out is an angry eye by the way!

No deep blues or pretty pinks.  Instead, white flakes swirling around my sunny summer and covering my colorful autumn.  No sunshine breaking through.  Just gray skies both days. 

Or did I miss the ray of sunshine peeking through the clouds?  On those drab days, maybe God was there turning my backyard into a snow globe with tropical blossoms at the center.  Serving up a cute little pumpkin with plump pink lips and an icy white bouffant hair-do. 

Blowing me snowflake kisses to tell me just how much He loves me.