The other morning on my pre-dawn walk, I noticed a scene that looked like something my daughter would call Zombie Weather, foggy and misty. It was cold and damp and soaked into my bones. Gloomy is what it was. It kind of mirrored my mindset. I was frustrated that morning wanting things to be different, wanting something that wasn’t forthcoming, wanting relief, wanting the ache to go away. I could rush out into that mist and scream and wave my arms and threaten and do any manner of irrational things, but none of that would disperse the fog. I had absolutely no control over either the fog of the morning or over the circumstances in my life causing my inner gloom. So I trudged forward, putting one foot in front of the other.
In God’s providence at that moment, I turned a corner and stood flabbergasted as the rising sun peeked out as it came up over the horizon. It filled my soul with gladness as I remembered that Jeremiah’s doxology to God’s mercies that are new every morning (Lam 3:22-23) is placed in the middle of a book which is filled with pain and confusion. I remembered Asaph, who penned Psalm 73 and when filled with confusion about the apparent success of the evildoers around him said, “But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, UNTIL I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.” (verse 16-17 emphasis mine)
Our perspective can be so flawed and fuzzy. It’s only in the light of the promises of God – based on His steadfast love and faithfulness and grounded in His goodness – that the fog clears and the dawn shines forth.
