And what about today?

What's up for today?  I have no idea.

But one thing I do know, no matter how bleak the landscape, no matter how swiftly changing the circumstances, no matter how long, overwhelming -- or underwhelming -- this day appears, God is in it.  God is with us.  We are not alone.

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said,
"Surely the LORD is in this place,
and I did not know it."

                         Genesis 28. 16

I don't want to emerge from this strange season, and look back through the rear-view mirror, before I see the evidence all around of His Presence -- even in the hard stuff, not just at the end of this, or the beginning of something new, but on the journey through. It is on the long road trips of life that we get to know God more. God never promised life would be easy in this broken world, but "I am with you."  He is not about to abandon us now.

While running through the woods in early spring, the paths were lined with what only appeared as trees on life support, leaning against each other for another day of courage.  But the sepia-toned landscape was not dead, not game over, but waiting, biding its time, growing deep underneath, where I could not see.

And there, suddenly, just waiting for me on the side of the hard dirt path, were a few blooms of hope. I had almost run past this cluster of splendor, not noticing the signs of life surrounding me.  This assurance of things not yet seen was rising up gloriously out of a carpet of dead leaves, resembling just a little bit the faithfulness of God.  This is not the end of the story after all,  but just a glimpse of the glory to come.

Surely the LORD
              is in this day.

And I don't want to miss it.