Faith is a peculiar thing. We want it to be something solid in our lives. If you are anything like me, then you sometimes find you are looking through freshly Windexed window panes of glass, seeing God quite clearly, yet at other times things are quite out of focus, like those obscured panels of glass used for bathroom windows. Perhaps Jesus is there but you can’t really make Him out. Naturally these changes in the glass are governed by my own life’s events and my personal disciplines, or lack thereof.
Tremendous changes in my life both good things and sad things, bad things and great things have molded my faith from childhood through maturity to demonstrate how God stands beside me. Those events yielded various levels of clarity in the glass with which I see Him.
Psalm 91:14-16 God says, “Because you are devoted to me, I’ll rescue you, I’ll protect you because you know my name. Whenever you cry out to me, I’ll answer. I’ll be with you in troubling times. I’ll save you and glorify you. I’ll fill you full with old age. I’ll show you my salvation.
This is my favorite time of year, and it reminds me of God’s amazing grace, which is everywhere this time of year! One step out my backdoor and I am greeted by so many flowers! To breathe in the delights of spring’s scent is an elixir that gives me a rush! It doesn't have to be spring to recognize the beauty in our world and to be personally restored by it. Recently I had the good fortune to take a watercolor workshop by an instructor with such enthusiasm that he pointed out the beauty in a photograph of a pile of junk! “Look at the shapes!” “Look at the values, the darks, the lights!” He was so totally jazzed by this pile of junk! Then we all began to see there was indeed an artful beauty there after all, we needed only to really look.
My glass becomes a bit clearer all the time. If I just keep on looking through it, I will see God. He is there. I know that. Sometimes I need to wipe away a bit of the mist on the glass to bring things into to better focus.
Today’s Lectionary readings:
Morning: Psalm 34 +146
Evening: Psalm 25+91
Jeremiah 15:10-21
Philippians 3:15-21
John 12:20-26
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