ROCK-SOLID ILLUSION

​I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.  John 8:12
 
In the middle of the night i looked out my cabin window and saw six to ten inches of fresh snow.  There was no moisture in the forecast, so i reckoned it a miracle and crawled back into bed.  A couple hours later i got up again and saw the same thing, while noting that there didn’t seem to be any snow under the trees.  Again i fell asleep, and when i awoke a third and final time i heard my roomie taking his dog out for a walk.  Imagining them romping through the snow, i peered out the window into the dawn’s first light and discovered that all those freshies had vanished.
 
“How could it have melted so fast?” i wondered.
 
Surely it couldn’t have, i concluded.  Suddenly i realized that all that white i’d seen was nothing more than dry sand and dead grass reflecting the full moon’s bright light.  That could have disappointed me but it didn’t, because i knew it was a sign; God was helping me exchange my confusion for revelation.  When i asked Him what was on His heart about that, He reminded me how i’d prayed during the night, when i’d asked Him to awaken Christ’s Spirit in me.
 
Holy Spirit tends to rise and lower like the tides, i’ve found, and this morning the tide was out.  Because His presence had ebbed, my prayers felt like they were landing with a thud, and every beachhead i was claiming for the kingdom felt like it consisted of nothing but sand.  That too might have discouraged me, but it didn’t, because those were only feelings.  Sometimes His Spirit flows and mountains move, God said, and sometimes He’s still and nothing moves.  He is in it all, He reassured me, and He wants me to savor His stillness even more than His stirring.
 
While i was pondering that this morning, God reminded me that we walk by faith not sight.1  Walking through dark valleys is part of our journey, for that’s how He builds our faith.2  In moments when i cannot discern how He is moving He calls me to believe that He is working things out for the best and to trust that He is faithful.3  If i consider darkness as inherently evil, i will give the enemy more credit than he’s due and he may use it against me.  But if i receive darkness as a prelude to sunrise, then surely Christ is risen in me!  And when i see what’s unfolding through Jesus’s amazing eyes, then darkness becomes as light to me! 4
 
That’s why, when i peered into the darkness early this morning, i saw a huge field of white.  It was a vivid reminder that where ordinary eyes see barren soil, Jesus sees a field ripe for harvest.5  For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and ushered us into His kingdom of marvelous light! 6
 
1  2 Corinthians 5:7
2  Psalm 23:3-4
3  John 20:29, Romans 8:28
4  Psalm 139:12
5  John 4:35
6  Colossians 1:13, 1 Peter 2:9