WATCHWORD:
If you had known… in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. Luke 19:42
Meditation:
If We Had Known
Paraphrased from Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest:
Jesus entered Jerusalem triumphantly and the city was stirred to its very foundations, but a strange god was there — the pride of the Pharisees. What is it that blinds us to the peace of God in this our day? Do we have a strange God — not a disgusting monster but perhaps in unholy nature that controls our lives at this moment? More than once God has brought us face to face with that strange God in our lives, and we knew that we should have given it up, but we didn’t. We may have gotten through the crisis, but just barely, only to find ourselves still under the control of that strange God.
“If you had known…” God’s words cut directly to the heart, with the tears of Jesus behind these words which imply responsibility for our own faults. God holds us accountable for what we refuse to see or are unable to see because of our sin. Oh, the sadness of what might have been. Doors of our lives close that will never be opened. God opens other doors. Never be afraid when God brings back our past. Let our memory have its way with us. It is a minister of God bringing its rebuke and sorrow to us. God will turn what might have been into a wonderful lesson of growth for the future.
Random thoughts:
Back before the beginning of time, as we know it, when I was a know-it-all sophomore at Ball State Teachers College, I found my ill-fated lifework with the drama club, performing a showy role in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. As any other sophisticated 17-year-old boy might do, I spent back-stage time memorizing portions of the bard’s other famous soliloquy’s, specifically Macbeth. For some inexplicable reason, the rather dreary and depressing portion of Act 5, Scene 5, came to mind. “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, creeps in its petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time…out, out brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage…a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
In truth, we can forgive this Macbeth, for he is just a figment of the author’s creative imagination, besides he’s murdered his best friend, is grieving for the death of his wife, and now considers his ill-gotten wealth and realizes it means nothing, nothing at all. Maybe isolation means re-ordering of our priorities, do you suppose? What do you assign highest value to, now, that may not have made your top five list, even a month ago? Ah, lessons from adversity. Just thinkin’.
A free-verse poem by Haruki Murakami:
And once the storm is over
You won’t remember how you made it through,
How do you manage to survive?
You won’t even be sure, in fact, that the storm is over.
But one thing is certain: When you come out of the storm,
You won’t be the same person who walked in.
That’s what the storm is all about.
Closing Prayer/Meditation:
Consider the storm over! This perfect day, Thursday, April 3 is before you. The sun will soon flood our world, and the warmth of God’s love will reach over 60° by afternoon. Get out, breathe IN the freshness of the air, breathe OUT the dark stuffiness of isolation. Look around with new eyes at the colors, the trees beginning to bud, early spring flowers brightening our flower beds and the forest, and puffs of pure, white clouds lazily moving against the azure blue sky. Squirrels scurry; birds, in beautiful plumage, fill the air with their song of happiness and they seek, with success, love. This is the day the Lord has created for us, and it rests with us to rejoice, give thanks, and speak to our Creator of our gratitude, our gratitude for even this time of isolation. You are our God. In You, we trust our very lives. Amen.
