READ: DEUTERONOMY 31:6-8; PSALM 23; MATTHEW 28:20; JOHN 8:12

My father wheeled me out of the outpatient infusion center where I had just received my first iron infusion. I watched the bare walls and bleached floor pass by in a watery blur. By the time my dad pushed me into the box-shaped hospital entryway, now empty of people, I was crying and holding my purse like a teddy bear.

Parking my wheelchair near the sliding doors, my dad paused. “Are you okay?”

I didn’t know what to say. Did he want me to explain how I had gone to bed the night before, afraid I wouldn’t wake up? Or should I say that I was terrified of facing a chronic health issue?

Honestly, I didn’t have an answer. I just nodded.

When my dad left to get the car, I felt the emptiness encircle me. The volunteers were gone, and chairs stacked away. The lights were off, but brilliant sunlight shone into the room, contrasting the shadows of the trees.

Why do I have to experience this, Lord?

Will I ever get better?

I have learned that Jesus is present in those empty moments, like the vacant room of a hospital where I sat alone in a wheelchair, sobbing with fear as the daylight streamed in.

No, not truly alone, for Jesus was there. The light and beauty testified to my Savior’s love and goodness. I just couldn’t see it at the time.

If I could go back to that day, as that girl sat waiting for her father, I would push her out into the world underneath the shifting shadows of the trees and say, “Our lives are like those shadows. They are punctured with light. All we must do is look for the Light. He is always there.”

“But what if I don’t get better?” she would ask, her face moist from weeping.

“No matter what, He will be there.” • Sophia Bricker

• Have you ever faced an illness or a situation in life that really scared you? Were there any ways you experienced Jesus’s nearness in that time?

• Walking through hardships is not something any of us want. Yet, how can knowing that the Lord is with us, by our side even in the darkest valleys, give us hope and strength?

“The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8 (NIV)