In the Torah, the story teller says “God said let there be light.” One would have to reason that God Himself was dwelling in the darkness. Light’s speed is inescapable and it’s also necessary. When the need catches up to us, it is blinding and painful. After several moments, our vision steadies through blinking…returning to the darkness.

The light reveals what is in the dark corners. We are standing in pitch black corners in charcoal skin, cloaked in murky sack cloth. We are bleeding. We are swollen. We do not speak. Blood flows slowly tickling and trickling down our brokenness. Inflamed skin stands tall, as swollen as battered Rubenesque models. Our cry is loud. As loud as hip hop braille against the finger tips of chain mail gloved hands.

In this chaos we are fully exposed. We can see the concentric circles do-si-do around our eyes, as red X’s on a failed exam. They are evidence of the chaos. Perhaps our hands were too slow to guard the eye. Perhaps our head was too slow to evade the blow. Like flashes on impact, enlightening us to our faults. The fallibility teaches us to put our hands up. As our hands rise, so do we. As our hands rise, so do our expectations. As our hands rise, we view unprotected people in chaos and find our peace in being models of brokenness made strong in the darkness and the burning light.