Since last December, a deeper darkness seems to have spread across the world, stronger than the familiar end-of-year unrest/pattern.

What I believed would fade has crossed into the new year, surprising suicide/death numbers, unexplainable chaos and conflicts. What the eyes cannot see are more than what the eyes and media can visualize.

Only the mercies of God, and abiding in Jesus, can protect us from a darkness that has grown fiercer and more consuming.