I Believe in the Sun Even When It's Not Shining

 

There are those days, those moments when the sun shines, the warmth is felt, all seems right in the world and faith and God seem near.  

There are also those days when the clouds hide the visibility of the sun and the day seems quite cloudy and uncertain.

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As I sat outside one morning as this day was dawning, it was raining, foggy, and the birds were chirping.  Life was happening and the day dawning just like yesterday, but that day started with the colour in the sky and the sun appearing.

I reflected.  This morning is no different in the day dawning, except that is was raining and foggy.  The fog hid the sun but that did not mean the sun wasn't still shining.

So it is with our storms and rain and Jesus.  

When I was in my darkest stormy nights, Jesus felt far away.  I felt forgotten and often wondered if He cared or even still loves me.  (Yes, it is my weakness as I associate care, presence with being valued and loved.)  Prayers seemed to go unheeded or answered.

Through that and looking back, I see ways God was navigating and very present even when I could not see it or the darkness hid Him, just like the foggy morning hid the rising sun.

Faith.  Faith is believing in the presence of the Son, Jesus, even when what I am walking through is hiding His presence and I cannot see His workings.

Another day. Another morning. Repeat.

I wonder if you have this same experience?  I suspect you do, for we humans have the same struggles they only have a different face, maybe a different way it is seen or experienced.

You know, sometimes it's real easy to have faith in Jesus, the mountain top feel.  But the reality is, there are times it really is not so easy.

We recently experienced the eclipse of the sun.  For a minute or three, the day got dark and the sun obstructed by the moon.  Light and warmth were obstructed as the moon passed between us and the sun. It was a glorious moment to witness, but when the 'sun' gets eclipsed in my life it's really not such a glorious moment to live out.  

Faith is a choice.  A decision and a learning to know the heart of God and to trust Him, even if.  Faith is a decision to learn to really know God and to believe Him whether the sun is shining or not.

These words are easier to type than to live out.  These words I don't write lightly but I write them because it is true and to keep reminding my own fragile human heart that God is still good in the stormy night as He is in the sunlit, heartfelt moments.

The words to the song, I believe in the sun even when it's not shining, I believe in a God even when I can't see Him were written and inscribed on the walls of a prison concentration camp.  There were inscribed with a choice to stay with God, to believe Him even in the darkest and meanest of times.  

I don't believe they were written lightly.  They were written with a specific, faith-filled choice to believe God for who He is.

And I do the same.

Is it dark for you today?  Have you walked away from the God who loves you and is still good in the hard?  Maybe it is only a shift in your heart to not believe God or to think He doesn't care or you don't matter?

I know I have, it's easy to do when the hard washes over and knocks us down.  But I have also come back to stay.  To find refuge under the wings of our Almighty Father and to choose to believe His words of truth in a moment that screams otherwise.

Faith isn't faith until something doesn't make sense and you still stay with Jesus, trusting Him  and choosing to believe in His love and goodness; even if. 

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

As I sat one day in a Sunday School class and listened to the struggles of 'Why am I struggling with wanting more, when I have so much already?'  'Why does another's possessions make me want more when all I really want is Jesus?'

I think we all have also struggled with the questions of...
Why does God let this bad or hard thing happen to me?
Why doesn't God answer my prayer?

 
We blame God... looking for a place to land our aching hearts with the hard.

Let me ask another question, "What did God create in the beginning?"

He created all things GOOD.
He created beauty and life.  He created no bad or evil.

Satan, many 'years' prior, wanted to be like God and created a rebellion; which God had to remove.  So, God removed Satan from heaven.  Satan is the beginning of all things ugly.

When God created the world and placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, He made all sorts of trees to grow - trees that were beautiful and produced delicious fruit. Genesis 2:9  He placed two trees in the middle of the Garden - the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

He told Man, "You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden, Except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  If you eat its fruit , you are sure to die."  Genesis 2:16-17 

We have GOOD and EVIL.
Two choices.  Two consequences.

God, the author of good.  Satan the beginning of evil.
A tree - the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

At this point Adam only knew good.  He did not know evil.
At this point it seems that Adam is alone.  The Bible isn't clear on the sequence.

In verses 21-22, God made woman, out of man.

If Adam was alone, then I have another set of questions, "Did Adam forget to tell Eve about the tree?  Did he tell her and then not have the courage to take a stand against the deception of Satan?"  The Bible doesn't give us those details.

We only know that one day, one moment, they were both presented with a choice...
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtle (shrewd) than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.  And he said unto the woman, Yea, had God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
vv. 4-5, And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die;
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

A choice.

GOD DID NOT CREATE EVIL.  IT'S A RESULT OF A CHOICE.

With the choice of Adam and Eve, they now know GOOD and EVIL.  They know good and bad.  They know love and hate.  They know freedom and shame.

God did not leave them in that state.  God never leaves bad alone.  He REDEEMS.
He set in motion a promise of a Redeemer and gave specific instructions that point to the Redeemer.

They took fig leaves to cover themselves.  But God made clothing from animal skins. Fig leaves were not sufficient. Life was forever changed.  Blood was shed for forgiveness and redemption.

Just like Adam and Eve experienced redemption in the midst of bad, so today God will always redeem the bad and painful experiences; if we seek Him.

I believe all bad falls through the hand of God and that can be hard to wrestle with.  So, why doesn't God simply close His hand and not let it happen??
We blame God for allowing it to happen, when it's simply a part of the brokenness that happened as a result of taking from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  We now know GOOD and EVIL.

I believe it's back to the choice and consequences that happened.  Free will or choice comes with a price, a cost, a consequence of good or hard.

God cannot go back on His Word of saying that death will happen if the fruit was eaten, but He can redeem!  And redeem He wants to do and will do if we turn our hearts toward Him in repentance.

Right from that first moment of a wrong choice, God spoke words of redeeming along with the consequences.  

There is a mystery to the hard to those who love God.  Romans 8:28 says, God uses all things for good.  He doesn't say all things are good, but all of the happenings, God weaves it all in a tapestry that is good.  And in the moments when we're drowning in the hard, we can simply choose to stay with God.  Choosing to remember God.  Choosing to trust His heart of redemption and walk with Him in the mystery of hard and its redemption. 

Really, redemption is a very underserving gift.  To think that God cares so much for who He created, to not let them sit in the results of their wrong choices and to offer redemption.

I pause and bow, struck by the awesome gravity of this.  

Have you accepted and received God's redemption for you?