Light Before the Ceremony Arrives

The sun is up, but the house feels heavier than it did at midnight. This is the loneliness of a grief that had no funeral, no flowers, no one to stand beside you while the dirt was thrown down.

The world is moving, making its coffee, starting its engines, and you are standing still in a room where someone used to breathe. But look—the light is already here.

It did not wait for the ceremony. It did not require the crowd to arrive before it could shine.

Because of the tender mercy of our God, the rising sun has come to you from heaven, to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death. It is guiding your feet, right now, into the path of peace.

You do not have to walk this morning alone. The light is not a replacement for what you lost; it is the ground beneath your feet when there is nothing else left to stand on.