A few weeks ago, before most offices shut down, I got into my car to go to a necessary appointment. It had rained the night before and the windows were covered with dew. It wasn’t raining, but everything was wet. It was impossible to see through the windshield. So, I turned on the windshield wipers and immediately there was perfect clarity. I pulled down the driveway and slowly the windshield clouded up again. So again, I turned on the wipers. CLARITY. This process went on for the entire drive—the slow clouding and the wiping away.
God was teaching me something much more profound about this moment in time. We are living in foggy, misty time. There is little certainty. If we sit too long contemplating this reality, our thinking and our hoping will get completely clouded. We need something like those windshield wipers to give us clear vision to see the road ahead of us. And we need it again and again.
As I watched the miraculous transpire before my eyes—glass going from opaque to transparent, I realized that is what sitting in God’s Word and God’s presence is able to do for us in this and all moments of time.
While many parts of our daily routine look different these days, one thing that has remained the same has been the rhythm of waking up before the kids for time with coffee and Jesus. I will admit, sometimes it is hard to listen to that alarm when we know there is no bus coming and timing really can be much more flexible than ever before. But, I also know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am a different person at 30 days into this whole mess than I would be had I not fought this fight.
You see, for me, and I believe for you too, spending time with God; reading His promises, remembering His Truth, crying out to Him, instead of just complaining to others, is like that windshield wiper clearing away the dew. It grounds me in a hope that is unchanging and unfailing. Even though it is still foggy around me, I can again see the few car lengths in front of me. And maybe that is what God wants to teach me.
In Psalm 119:105, God promises that His Word will be a lamp unto our feet and a light to our path. This image is clearly meant to put us in the darkness of the woods at night. At times, God gives us the sun and we can see the whole landscape. At other times, like these times, God gives us the lantern. He is the source of both. While many of us, myself included, would prefer to walk in the clarity of the day, there is something about walking deliberately at night that causes us to truly see what is in front of us, each step, and to trust and to value that lantern more than we ever thought possible.
We are living in a foggy time; in a dark time. The only way to be able to drive, to see, to walk is by constantly coming back to the God who is the lantern, who is the wiper. We need to turn to Him in His Word, we need to sit with Him in meditation and talk to Him in prayer. And we need to do it often. The fog WILL return. The darkness WILL threaten to overwhelm us. But when we come to Jesus again, and again, and again; each morning, each afternoon, each evening, we will have eyes to see.
Rosanne