Cleansing-White

 The first snowfall has already come here in the Last Frontier. Crazy, right? 

September is early for it... almost too early, I'd say. But perhaps God knew we needed a reminder in these hard days that grace always arrives when you most need it and often sooner than you think. 

Tree bend down low as leaves have yet to fall and all this white-weight now covers them all, and I feel like all our souls are a little heavy. Fears and doubts have spoken loud and all things wild in a world of sin have done their damage to our mental health and we're all out here trying to find our way toward God when it seems as though He feels distant. When our sight tells us there is no hand at the helm of the universe, can we discover hope? Can we experience the reality of Emmanuel - of "God with us" - when none of this feels of God at all? 

Morning temps give way to afternoon warmth and the white starts to fade. Little do I know the white will return for a second appearance in a couple of days, almost like God is trying to break through. Trying to tell us to trust His cleansing - that all sin-scarlet will be put right, and in this broken mess, He will shine through all the brighter. 

It's as if He can't wait to wash it all white and remind us yet again that He's always working, always moving and He'll show us great wonders if we'll just keep our eyes and souls open. 

I think we miss a great many miracles and holy moments because we're too closed off to see. Because we're looking the wrong way and false concluding God isn't there when, in reality, He's showing us Himself right in front of us if we'll only turn and gaze. Gaze at what He's made. Gaze at His past faithfulness. 

It's fitting in all this chaos that a new song hit the airwaves and it's all about how He is with us and I see now that, when you really and truly believe that, there is always hope. You have peace. You have faith. Because the same God who's stood in furnaces and lions dens and all manner of dark places and empty spaces and who entered earth as a frail baby in a animal stable is the same God who is still entering our broken world today. And if history teaches anything it's that there is no length He isn't willing to go to in order to be with us. 

And we're going to really sit here and think He's forgotten us? Claim He's left us alone? Think He's done when He's actually setting up for what's to come? 

He's the God of the unexpected, friend. Sometimes that comes in the form of great suffering and sometimes in the form of great joy. And in either one, He reminds us that we are not God and that we don't see the plan and only He knows, so why don't we live like that's actually true!  

Why don't we choose to take a leap of belief and imagine that impossibilities are actually possible... that all the things we've dismissed could actually hold the key to where He's going and that all He does is with the intent of getting us out of our limiting beliefs and showing us who He really is! Why don't we get out of these boxes of ours and, instead of trying to fit God into them, let Him blow them up and expand what we know and grow our faith! 

We can hold ourselves back from much of the spiritual life simply by failing to open our minds to the fact that what we think we know might not be accurate and that God could be up to much more than meets the eye. Could be challenging us to step out of the comfort zone and into the unknown where He's standing and see life from an entirely different and fresh way. 

"God with us" is more than just a nice sentiment - it's a reality. And that means that He's always inserting Himself into human history, proving that the One who made it all has not forgotten us all and that He rules all and can handle it all. 

So why don't we just trust Him and let go of it all...

White-capped mountains that, just a week ago, were full of lively autumn color now shout of winter's coming and seasons changing and I feel the winds of hope shifting as well. Sense the darkness is going to lift soon and we're all going to see glory and get a peak into His story and all this crazy will do what it always does: work for the good of those who know Him. 

He's always changing the circumstances even as He Himself is never-changing, always looking for ways to drive home to us the fact that He knows best and we can trust Him with the process, believing Him for blessing on the way even when it feels far away. And this is the rest we can find even when things appear to be out of control. 

All this cleansing-white is calling to my soul to fall back into a bigger plan and take joy in that the Son of Man dwells here, in the now, and He never did abandon a heart in its hardest hour.