I confess, even after following Jesus for most of my life, there are many things I still don’t ’get’ about God. And that’s not always a bad thing. Mystery, even in those moments when I’d rather have a printable version of ‘How to Grasp the Holy in 10 Easy Steps’ (or even 5 hard ones), is part of the divine equation.
Though the temps are in the 90s as I write this and the sun is warming my shoulders, this summer has included long days of darkness and sleepless nights of tears as I’ve watched the struggle of those I love so fiercely. I’m still sorting through what God has for me to learn in all this—and how He wants me to respond to others and to Him. It’s a bit like I’m on my knees in a dark room, feeling around for all the scattered pieces of a 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, yet not knowing if I’m missing something or how it’s even supposed to look when it comes together.
Here is mystery: God is light, in Him there is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5) And yet He often does His best work in the dark. Even in the act of creating this world, God was working in the dark. “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2)
I wonder if God, the Light One, sometimes hides in the darkness, not to forever conceal Himself, but to jump out and surprise me with unexpected joy. I wonder if His Spirit is hovering over my darkness, and yours, working on a creation so majestic it will take our breaths away. I listen in the stillness of the darkness for those words that change everything: Let there be light.
Darkness never wins. Your soul may be overcast now and circumstances may feel like you’re stuck in an endless midnight. But friend, get your sunglasses ready. Light will come.
In the meantime, though I can’t always see His face in my own season of gloom, He sits with me in the dark, quietly working His mysteries. I can put up with shadows when the Shining One is near.
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