Dear Ones,
Hope your day is full of sunshine! It is raining here in Elizabethtown, KY and predicted for the next couple days. We had a restful night and I got a nice swim in when we arrived here. It was later than planned as we were in bumper to bumper traffic in Louisville.Emoji  Soon we are going to head to Gethsemini Monastery before continuing on with our trip to N.C. Thank you for prayers for our journey. 
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Let us not ever forget that in the darkest times of our lives that God is right there with us. When we feel broken and alone, He is present and offers comfort and hope.
Ellie Holcomb, award-winning Christian singer released her latest album, Canyon, in which she shares how God meets us in those darkest times and brings healing. She personally went through a deep healing time from wounds of her past and then not long after, experienced effects of a tornado that hit her neighborhood, followed by lockdowns by COVID-19. But through those times of pain, she learned how to grieve and lament and experienced God’s tenderness.
Once COVID seemed to lessen, she and her husband took a trip to the Grand Canyon, where she was greatly inspired and a new album resulted. They camped on the riverbank of the Northern Rim of the canyon and rafted out from there. The guide they had told of how creation declares God’s glory and also rehearsed the story of the canyon walls made from of the landslides, mudslides, earthquakes and volcanoes with the huge divide in the middle. But in the depths of the canyon there is a river that runs through and Ellie said, “There is a current of God’s love that runs deeper than our deepest ache or sorrow that will carry us when it feels like we can’t carry on any longer. It will carry us back to the place where we know and can remember that even when we’re broken, we’re beloved, and we have a place where we belong. It’ll carry us to a place where we know that we belong to each other.”
The experience in the canyon left her feeling like God’s love was as big as the ocean for she personally experienced His presence in the midst of pain, and really knew God was right there with her. One night while camping she woke up and looked up to the sky. Because they were a mile into the surface of the earth, the darkness was so great but the stars seemed brighter and closer than ever. Just as her song Paradox says that God meets us in the darkest nights of our soul, the darker the night the brighter the stars shine!
Like Ellie, we all have dark times but as the Lord said to Moses, He says to us in Exodus 33:14   (ESV) “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Challenge for today: Let the river of His love flow through your deepest sorrows. 
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy