treasures of darkness?

My freshmen year of High School I took a photography class.

I thought I'd love it. I loved taking pictures, appreciating good art & creativity, and I was given a free pass to roam around the entire campus to look for great shots.

It was not long before I hated going to photography class. All for one reason...I'd walk into the room with a clear picture in my mind of what I thought was on my film and then would end up walking out of the dark room with something completely different developed on my print.

I did not know how to maximize my time in the dark room.

It was not until I asked the teacher to join me in the dark room for some extra coaching. She wouldn't talk a whole lot (teachers rarely talk while their students are taking tests) and she wouldn't do the work for me, but just knowing that someone was standing next to me that knew how to work in that environment, helped. In the end, my pictures develop with much sharper clarity.

"I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name." Isaiah 45:3

Light shines the greatest in dark places.

Many times our spiritual valleys are the places most pregnant with fresh vision.

All of us will find ourselves in these dark, difficult, quiet, trying, isolated valleys...but often it's in the the "dark rooms" of our lives that God's call and vision for our lives begins to come into greater focus.

Don't leave your current valley without the treasure and riches stored for you in the dark and hidden places.