Corona Devo 906
I had a snowball day today...even though it's August.
It started off not-great...and then life just snowballed all day.
Bad news came yesterday and then...do you know that feeling when you wake up the next day and life is normal until you remember the thing. This was a sad thing. A hopeless thing. An unrelated-directly-to-me, but heartbreaking-for-humanity thing. And it sat heavy on my heart as the day began.
Did I not weep for those in trouble? Was I not deeply grieved for the needy? (26) So I looked for good, but evil came instead. I waited for the light, but darkness fell. ~Job 30:25-26
Normal life ensued from there, but when you're heavy, then even life's normalcies seem heavy-er, or like work.
I was (perhaps falsely-trusting and) hoping for something good to happen, something God to happen. Something to lift this and lift me. I even had my own ideas about what...but nothing came.
And so...the day dragged on and snowballed.
I know that God governs us and our days, but I had lost sight of Him. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...(Psalm 23:4).
But God never loses sight of us. I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4).
The day had been long, and I was done, but I still had a big drive home...and God shined on me the whole way.
Literally. Unswervingly. Almost blindingly.
It wasn't exactly like when Joshua prayed to God and asked Him to “Let the sun stand still..." (Exodus 10:12)...and God did (So the sun stood still and the moon stayed in place until the nation of Israel had defeated its enemies (Exodus 10:13), but for whatever reason, (God's reasons) the sun (seemed) to stay over my head and in my face all the way home.
It felt like...the sun was shining directly into me and my mood. Bright! Piercing! Undeniable and un-ignorable.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” ~John 16:33
God got my attention. In a warm, sunny, direct-line way, I could not deny He was there. And He wouldn't go away either. I was grumpy. I was sad, and some strange part of me wanted to sit in that. But like a puppy nipping at your heels, God wasn't leaving.
He won't either.
And the Lord passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, (7) maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. ~Exodus 34:6-7
The Lord is merciful, gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth to us. And He won't relent especially when we are caught up in other realms of not-so-good and un-truth, like thinking that there is no hope, or that the day/person/situation is lost.
We will have times/days/seasons of sad/bad/funk/and sin, but our Lord is persistent and long-suffering in His love and in His pursuit of us. Unrelenting even, just like the sun on my way home today.
Everything is not as it seems. Because all we can see is our current state of affairs, but God sees more, God knows more, and God is more.
I was lamenting life and its (large and small) tragedies, but God shined in my face to remind me that while we are laser-focused on the minutiae of life, and (smaller yet)...of our individual lives...God is orchestrating the shining of the sun. The orbit of planets, and the call that He has on our lives.
I wanted to wallow but God forced me to encounter His bright, unshielded, unwavering, undeniable presence, all the way home. And He wasn't leaving until I got it.
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ~2 Corinthians 4:17
It took a few miles, but I got it.
Ever squinted into the sun? Have you noticed that doing so causes an almost involuntary and unavoidable result of smiling? I found out that a squint automatically pulls my cheeks up and my lips back into a smile.
Nope, God wasn't going away and He also wasn't leaving me where I was either.
Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you. ~Deuteronomy 31:8
And slowly but surely, as I squinted in the warmth of the sun, my "forced" smile relaxed into a willing smile. God sees the events that "snowball" into a bad day, and they matter to Him. We matter to Him. And He will also take the opportunity to enter into our "snowball" day and remind us Who is in control.
He was relating to me through the sun, and its warmth and (bright!) light, which is something that He created.
We "feel" how we "feel" today, and it will change tomorrow or in five minutes, but God hung the stars. He created the mountains, and He powers the sun. We can certainly trust that He is with us on a day when our woes snowball.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, (4) what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? ~Psalm 8:3-4
And yet, He does care for us. Intimately. Personally. Un-ignorably Even on the snowball days--God's light and love blazes through.
"The Lord bless you and keep you; (25) the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; (26) the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace." ~Numbers 6:24-26
Blessings,
sarah
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