Sitting with the Lord tonight on my back deck. I’d gone to take dogs out & as usual TB got her leash tangled up and so I had to go release her. It felt so nice and cool, I just felt led to sit down back there for awhile. So I sat down, leaned back and looked toward the heavens. It was very overcast. I mean dark clouds as far as you could see. It was right at dusk so it wasn’t completely dark. As I sat back, I invited the Lord to speak to my heart. There’s something about inviting the Holy Spirit into your heart. Yes He’s omnipresence both within and without our lives. But when we take the time to humbly ask Him to speak to us. When we acknowledge His presence in those quiet times. When we look up and open our hearts to Him. In my experience, He always shows up! As I opened my heart to the Lord, I acknowledged His greatness. I’m sitting there looking at the vastness of these cloudy skies and I sense God’s greatness! Holy Spirit always directing our attention to our present Lord. He is here! Lord you are great! Then I quieted myself to listen out for His word to my heart. As I looked up at these dark dense clouds, suddenly they started moving quickly and started to clear directly in front of my view. And the clearing stayed in that place for a while as I sat and listened out for the Holy Spirit. In that moment the Holy Spirit ministered to my heart, “I’m parting the clouds for you!” Then I felt drawn to notice the contrast between the darkness of the dense clouds and the lightness of the skies in the clearing. And I felt the Lord minister that the dark clouds represented all the challenges and struggles in this past year. The clearing represents the brightness of the future, the coming New Year. “I am parting the clouds for you!” Then I asked, “Lord, do it not just for me but for anyone who has struggled with the darkness.”Darkness in their jobs, darkness within their relationships, darkness in their physical, emotional, spiritual and mental health, darkness in their thinking, darkness in their finances, darkness during this pandemic. Lord part the clouds for all of us! You are the great cloud parter. I know Him as a cloud parter. I know him as a storm chaser awayer, I know Him as a rainbow promise keeper. Yes Lord, part the clouds for us! Holy Spirit speaking to my heart to shift my focus away from the clouds & instead focus on the promise! I’m reminded of a quote I read somewhere, I paraphrase “there’s always an end to every storm.” Stormy days will happen but keep looking out for clearing skies. As this next Year approaches focus on the promise of New. “New” – what a word! New promises better days ahead. New promises change and growth. New promises light after darkness. New promises rainbows after storms. New promises healing after brokenness. We can’t predict what the new year will hold. But we can believe the promise of new possibilities, new dreams, new growth, new healing and new hope! Best of all new experiences in the depths of our relationship with God. Who better to trust with our New than the One who sacrificed His life so we can have life anew every day! The clouds have been parted, what better time to reevaluate, realign and reset than at the beginning of a New year! I pray for a year of “New” and whatever that brings our way. Happy New Year!!!!

I found the full quote I referenced:
“There’s an end to every storm. Once all the trees have been uprooted. Once all the houses have been ripped apart. The wind will hush. The clouds will part. The rain will stop. The sky will clear in an instant and only then, in those quiet moments after the storm, do we learn who was strong enough to survive it.”
— Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey’s Anatomy, Season 9: Perfect Storm