Friday, January 24, 2020

Facial recognition


As I pulled out of the garage, it was as desolate, bone chilling, and dark as a mid-January morning before dawn.  Because it was indeed a desolate, bone chilling, mid-January morning.  Not even the sun had risen yet.  I was on my way to Bible study on the other side of town, trying to beat the traffic.

But as I descended the long hill, around the curve on the deserted road, and across the bridge over the swollen creek, I gazed over the fallow fields, abandoned and frosted.  I gasped at what I saw.  "Keep your eyes on the road," I said out loud.

Because there was no mere biblical burning bush trying to get my attention.  The entire horizon of the new day was blazing with His glory.















My friend Marcia took this shot while she was driving to Bible study. Indeed, every one in our group from every part of town witnessed that same majesty.   I still have that image of Shekinah Glory engraved in my brain, this visible manifestation of God on earth, not just a natural occurrence, but a supernatural one -- which is the way God always works.
 
It was not like God was trying to prove His existence ("I AM"), but revealing His Presence ("I am right here with you.")  And He practices the same resurrection twice a day, every day, so precisely we know the very minute today, tomorrow, a hundred years from now, a thousand years before in history.  God's quotidian evidence is steadfast, immovable, and not subject to change, whether we are looking for it or not.

The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above
      proclaims His handiwork.

                           Psalm 19. 1

The very moment I saw the beauty, literally before me,  all words were erased from my vocabulary.  But the silence was more than I needed to account for what I was feeling.  Not just what describes the awe, but what explains the awe?  Even among those who do not believe in God, even among those who follow Him, the wonder is but recognition of the Almighty.

There is a story here of His faithfulness, His grander narrative we cannot but catch a glimpse.  What does it take for us to see that?

"Now watch what I do with the rest of the day,"  God chuckled.