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| Photo Credit: Flickr user Jeff Babbitt, Creative Commons |
I am often astounded by my husband’s ability to see in the dark. He claims he’s normal, and that there’s enough light from streetlights, the moon, clocks and other electronics to see the outlines of most rooms and furniture. When my contacts are out and my coke-bottle glasses are off, the dimness of night is equivalent to closing my eyes – my darkness is complete. It is inconceivable to me that he can actually see (and yet, he doesn’t run into nearly as many doors, walls and pieces of furniture as I do!).
I am regularly astounded by God’s ability to see in the dark. When we blindly stand in the complete dark of life, God stands in the light and knows just where we’re going.
Pastor Dirk brought us Paul’s testimony this week out of Galatians 1:11-24. He had been zealous for God and His law as a Jew, until God interrupted with His glorious grace. Paul was in the dark, blind to God’s grace, when his eyes were opened (literally – see Acts 9); once he saw the light, he could do nothing but praise God and share the message of His amazing grace! In the letter to the Galatians, he testifies to God’s grace – grace that redeemed him to everlasting life, and the gracious act that was his personal story. Paul had persecuted Christians – he was wildly undeserving of God’s favor. But that’s grace: he was undeserving, but Jesus called him, loved him and saved him. He was graciously saved by grace.
Paul’s story is only one of many; Naomi was another undeserving person on whom God lavished abundant grace. Famine drove Naomi’s family from their home in Bethlehem to the foreign country of Moab. Her sons married, but then they and her husband died; Naomi was plunged into a different, difficult life. With no one to care for her and no hope of heirs, she left for home, filled with bitterness. Naomi was in the darkness.
In darkness she returned to Bethlehem, but the rays of light began to break through. Ruth, her daughter-in-law (the only family she had left!) met Boaz. He married Ruth to redeem them, to provide heirs and restore their lives. Boaz and Ruth had a son and those rays of light burst into glorious, grace filled joy. The book ends with a family tree: Naomi’s grandson became the grandfather of King David! In 2 Samuel 7:16, God promises David a kingdom and a throne forever, which He ultimately fulfills through Jesus, the “Son of David” (Matthew 21:9). What a life redeemed by grace!
In the middle of it all, Naomi’s darkness was quite complete; in Ruth 1:21 she says, “I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty…” Naomi could see nothing in her darkness. But God could. Without the difficult season, the King would not have come through her line. God was preparing for a greater glory. He was laying the groundwork for the Savior, and revealing His own role as Redeemer!
I’m tempted to look at Naomi’s story the way that we look at our own stories; ready to point out and proclaim God’s grace and salvation at the end, but forgetting that He was there all through the dark. He didn’t show up when Naomi and Ruth met Boaz; but perhaps that’s when He was revealed. God was there the whole time, seeing in the dark where Naomi was blind, knowing His plan for her good and His glory. Psalm 139:12 says “Even the darkness is not dark to you, and the night as bright as day…” Even when my darkness is complete, God is enough light to see everything!
In our own testimonies of God’s grace, aren’t we tempted to lean the same way – to know His grace and glory when we are headed toward those rays of light, but to forget His grace and sovereignty when we are on the way down or wallowing in a dark night of the soul? We talk about the times when God rescued, the times when Light broke in and swallowed the dark. We skip the confusing part where we stumbled or fell or were cast unaware into the pit – it seems too difficult to explain how or why God would put us or let us go there. All we see is the dark, but He sees the plan. And by His grace, He brings us out on the other side, transformed evermore into the likeness of His Son. (2 Corinthians 3:18) By His grace He invites those circumstances into our lives to shape and mold us, to prepare us for the good works He has had ready for us since He formed us! (Ephesians 2:10)
”He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.” Daniel 2:22 NIV
[Robin Bupp is married to Caleb, and they are from many places east of the Mississippi (but are calling Michigan home for the foreseeable future). A former high school science teacher, Robin is slowly turning the two Bupp kiddos into tiny nerds while they teach her lots of things, including humility and patience.]
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