We all know the story of the crucifixion, but what I didn’t realize and have come to learn is that Jesus hung on the cross for 6 hours, and only 3 of those 6 hours is what we typically talk about. The other 3 hours he hung up there in complete darkness.

We don’t have much scripture from those three hours, and I think that’s why we don’t think of it very much, but we do have one scripture. It was during the darkness when Jesus said “my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” So we know that in that darkness is also when he suffered the greatest, all alone.

There’s a profound connection here for our lives as we also have deep darkness that we suffer through. For as He was suffering, the returning light was *just* around the corner and because He suffered fully alone in that darkness, eventually overcoming, we can be assured that light will also return for us, glorious and magnificent. Light will ALWAYS overcome the darkness. Always. We simply have to invite it back in. Because as earth was mourning the loss of the Savior of mankind, heaven was rejoicing at the triumph of Jesus Christ overcoming the world for all of us. My painting is about the light that will always come when we invite Jesus into our lives in our dark times and about the triumph that He brings.