These long summer days are really messing with me. It's barely dark by 8:30 and the sun rose at 5:22 this morning. I bought 'blackout' curtains last week to try to help, but since they were budget brand they are more like 'dusk-in'. I kind of make it work if I keep the covers over my head and leave a little air hole to breathe through. That is until this morning when Jim got done in the bathroom and left the door open with the blinds up and I was blinded, as by a klieg light; the sun making it's debut once more.
It seems no matter how hard I try, that light finds ways of sneaking in. Stealthy and insidious. It finds gaps between the curtain and the wall. It creeps in under the door. Wherever it can find a crack it sneaks it's way in. There is just no way to stop it. I have threatened to paint the windows black, but I'm not sure even that would help. The light of the sun is insistent and demands attention. It is consistent and as the saying goes, as sure as the sun rises it will be here again tomorrow.
There is another saying, as sure as death and taxes. The thought that they will go on and on forever. But some day even those things will pass away. There is only one thing that will never end and that is the love of the Father. Psalm 136 is a beautiful testament of His love that is everlasting. "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever." (v 1) And it even talks about that great persistent light, "to him who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever; the sun to rule over the day, for his steadfast love endures forever". (v 7-8, ESV)
His steadfast love that shone an even brighter light, the light of His Son. And if you think the morning sun is insistent and constant, it has nothing on the Son of God. Whether you know it or not, whether you care to acknowledge it or not, you have a God who loves you. And He will do everything in His power to get you to see that. He has made Himself evident in all that He has created. Psalm 19:1-4 (NIV) says this
"The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun."
He is seen in all that He has made. And all that He has made makes a way to affirm that. “But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind." Job 12:7-10 (ESV) And His word says that every man by what he sees in all of creation can absolutely see who God is; "the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse." Romans 1:20 (MSG)
God is evident in all of nature, in all of creation. He has made a way for you to see Him, to know Him. He is constantly trying to get your attention, just like that sunlight that keeps edging it's way past the curtains. If you will but look around you, you can see the love and life of God. In the drop of dew on a daisy. In the starlight lending a soft glow to the cool evening sky. In the flash of color on the wing of a bluejay. You can see Him in the birth of a newborn. That glorious moment when they take that first cry and they are welcomed into this world. You can hear Him in the gurgle of laughter of that child as it is delighted by a butterfly. You can experience Him when you witness a young couple exchanging vows in the covenant of marriage and also in the couple in their twilight years who hold each other up as they take an evening stroll. You see Him in the joy of children playing. You hear Him in the sounds of music that lift your heart. You are aware of Him when you see a sublime piece of art and you weep at the beauty of it. He is all around you, drawing your attention constantly, consistently. He is that great light, always trying to capture your thoughts, seeking to draw you into His heart. The beauty of all of this is that in finding Him, in entering into His love, you gain everything. He seeks you out so that you will find Him. He knocks so that you will open the door. He does all of that, not as and end in itself, but so that through it all you may find His Son, you may find salvation. In Him, in receiving Him as Lord and Saviour you find light and life and love and peace. John 12:46, "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." (NIV) And as the light of God enters into that darkness, you will no longer want to draw the covers over your head. You will no longer seek the blackness of night, the dimness of dusk. You will desire to live in that luminous light of the Son for eternity.