Today we woke up to a world covered in the first snow of the season. To be fair, I was up and moving groggily about my morning routine, when I noticed that Natalie had posted a photo. I had been walking past windows for quite some time and hadn’t even noticed. I was surprised, because a day or two ago I checked the forecast and it assured me that while there would be snow in the mountains, we could expect temperatures well above freezing this week.
Shockingly, the news was wrong, and God had something else in mind.
And there’s the lesson, right? This year has seemed like nothing but bad news. Like the rest of the world, we have lived through the pandemic, lockdowns, having to re-think the way we do ministry, and quarantines, which as we all know lead to general crabbiness. Add to that ongoing and significant medical issues (more below), planned visits from friends and family being canceled, and being far from family during all of it, and it’s just not been a great year. Okay, I’ll say it – it’s been yucky.
But God. God reminds me in an instant that he is God and I am not. He can cover over everything in the blink of an eye, without me even noticing. His face is where our focus should be, and nowhere else! He is the sovereign Lord, the Creator of all, and he knows us by name.
Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
and because he is strong in power,
not one is missing.
Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:21-31
Shawn
