“What was your favorite part?” That’s what most of my colleagues asked me Monday morning on my first day back from vacation.
The answer came to me immediately: Of my 10 days traveling through Europe, there was one thing that really took my breath away. A wonder in Stockholm I’ll never forget.
I arrived in Stockholm in the early afternoon, settled in at my hotel, then set off for an afternoon of exploring the cobblestone streets of Gamla stan, the Old City. I walked for hours into the evening, losing track of time, which was easy to do. It doesn’t get dark in Stockholm during the summer and the sky never betrayed how late it really was. By 8 p.m., it felt more like lunchtime. To my eyes, it was wondrous. Can you imagine… a world that doesn’t get dark?
Around 8:30 p.m., I came across the city’s narrowest street. A skinny, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it staircase called Mårten Trotzigs gränd that’s less than three feet wide at one point. Now, in New York, I’d stay away from an alleyway like that so late at night. A crumbling, spray-painted unknown passageway? No thank you!
But across this narrow street, all I could see was brilliant light on the other side. So I walked down the 36 steps, stepping into glorious daylight at the end.
It didn’t stay daytime in Stockholm forever. By 10 p.m., night fell on the city. And come winter, the sun will set in Stockholm as early as 3 p.m. But that brightly lit June evening across Stockholm’s narrowest street showed me something–a glimpse of how God works.
Sometimes I wonder where God is in the darkest moments of my life, when I can’t see my way out of a problem and there’s no end in sight. But his light is always there, even when we can’t see it. Guiding us through the dark alleyways of life, if only we take the first step. It’s a truth I could make out more clearly in a city flooded with light.
That’s not to say I’ll be heading down a shadowy, sinister New York street any time soon. But I know God’s with me, whether or not the lights are turned on.
Have you ever come across a little bit of God’s wonder on your journeys near or far? Share your travel tale below!
