When Life Eclipses God

When Life Eclipses God

by Meredith Mills

@dazzledbytheson

We saw it, and it was dazzling.

cake-2201852_1280Like millions of other people, we traveled into the totality zone of the Great American Eclipse. We spent the afternoon camped out in the heat, hanging with some of our dearest friends, eating Moon Pies and Sun Chips and Cosmic Brownies.

A sense of anticipation hung in the air as the sun and moon aligned.

From behind our super-cool (ahem, functional) glasses, we watched the sun grow smaller bit by tiny bit until only a sliver remained visible.

And then it happened. The event everyone’s been talking about – the moment of total eclipse.

IMG_1804It nearly took my breath away.

Light radiated in all directions from the enormous dark spot in the sky. For nearly two minutes, heaven and earth seemed to stand still.

We saw what is normally imperceptible to the human eye – the sun’s corona. On normal occasions, the corona goes unseen because its light is so much dimmer than that of the sun’s surface.

But yesterday during the eclipse, we saw the radiant crown of the sun.

Life is a lot like that. Sometimes it takes an eclipse – a deep, dark shadow, to see the dazzling glory of the heavenly Son and to know Him in previously unexperienced ways.

It’s easy to enjoy God when life is bright and happy. Brilliant beyond words and more dazzling than our sun, the light of Jesus fills every corner of our earth. Unsurpassed in beauty, unrivaled in strength – this is our God. He rejoices the hearts of His children and fills our lives with good things.

But sometimes sorrow eclipses our God. Life can get so dark we seem to lose sight of Him. We may even forget what He looks like or wonder if He’s been a figment of our imaginations.

But there in the darkness, in the quiet place of our pain, God waits to reveal His heart to us. He invites us to experience His tenderness and find depths of comfort of which we’ve only ever heard tale.

Like the sun’s corona during an eclipse, God can be seen in breathtaking beauty during our darkest hour.

darkesthoureclipseHas life eclipsed your God? Have you lost sight of His goodness and love for you? Have faith, fellow Jesus lover. Just as the sun is unchanged though hidden by the moon, our God is unchanging and constant. He delights in you. His love is steadfast and His tender mercies are new every morning.

How have you experienced Jesus’ beauty during dark times? I’d love to hear – please comment below!

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What I Learned from the Kid who Fell Out of the Car

When Life Blindsides You

 

 

 

Apple of His Eye

“You can use my keys, Daddy,” she offered in her tiny sweet voice. Our baby girl held up her plastic rainbow keys as Hubby prepared to leave for the day.

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Sweet. Thoughtful. Adorable. But of course, completely impractical. Hubby knew they would never start his car.

But do you know what I noticed? He didn’t scold her for her childishness. He didn’t turn her away or ignore her unrealistic suggestion. He smiled and got down on her level, looking with delight into her bright, attentive eyes. She had come to him, and he was thrilled.

I wonder if that’s a little glimmer of how our heavenly Father relates toward us?

He doesn’t need our help, our gifts, our solutions, even our prayers. He is completely self-sufficient. And yet we, His kids, are His delight. (See Ps 149:4, Zeph 3:17.) It pleases Him when we come for any reason.

We don’t have to have the perfect prayer or really even know what to say (Rom 8:26). He loves it we talk to Him. He invites us to share life with Him. (He calls it “abiding” in John 15 and says that it’s the crux of the Christian life.)

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If you know God through faith in His Son, you have an all-access pass to His presence (Heb 4:16). Come anytime. Come all the time. For any and every reason – big or small.

Are you happy? Talk to Him about it! Thank Him for big and small joys. (See 1 Thess 5:18.)

Is your heart heavy? Throw your burden on Him! He’s big enough to handle it. (See 1 Pet 5:7.)

Do guilt and regret make you feel unwelcome? Come anyway. Let Him speak forgiveness over you. (See 1 Jn 1:9, Ps 103:12, 2 Cor 3:5.)

Are you entangled in sin? Bring it into His light. Let Him break your chains and teach you to walk free. (See Jn 8:36, Rom 12:2.)

You, child of God, are the apple of your Father’s eye.


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You are delighted in. Your salvation is all about relating to God, not about doing things for Him. He wants you to love Him, to delight in Him, to share life with Him. Out of that love for Him, everything else will flow.

Our Father is good. His love for us is so deep, so wide, so long and so high we could never find its borders.

“Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you” Ps 116:7.

When the Silence Speaks

Today was a rare occasion – I was silent for most of the day.

I can’t remember the last time I sat in quiet meditation as I soaked in my surroundings. I had forgotten how much the soul needs silence. The noise of daily life, it gets so deafening. Oh, how we need to make room for rest!

I’m in the mountains, sitting in a prayer garden right now – a meandering stream bubbling behind me, birds chirping out their Creator’s praise from the trees, a light breeze tickling the leaves above me. It’s beautiful. Cool and fresh and revitalizing. Not so hard to be silent here.

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Do you ever feel like you’re not…enough? There’s not enough you to accomplish all that should be done? You haven’t done enough? You aren’t good enough? You just don’t measure up?

I do. I think I carry that sense, that label I’ve given myself, everywhere I go. It’s always there, subtle and often unrecognizable, but constant nonetheless. Even now, as I’m coming out of perfectionism and into a deeper realization of grace, it’s still there.

Today as I’ve sat in silence, worshipped without speaking, and communed with God in my heart, I have heard His still small voice.

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He reminded me that I don’t have to be enough. I am loved.
  Infinitely loved. Passionately loved. Emotionally loved. Unconditionally loved. Relentlessly loved. Joyfully loved. Graciously loved. I am fully accepted by God on the grounds of Jesus’ righteousness. He is enough. I am in Him, and that is enough.

He needs nothing from me. Or you. Does that strike a blow to pride, or what! He doesn’t need my worship, as if He were insecurely egocentrical. He doesn’t need my service, as if He were incompetent on His own. He doesn’t need my witness, as if He doesn’t testify of Himself contstantly through His Word and in all of creation.  He doesn’t need me to be better, as if I could improve myself for Him. He doesn’t need my fellowship, as if He were not fully satisfied within His Triune Self. He doesn’t need me.

Oh, but He wants me. And He wants you. Not for what we can do for Him, but “that He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:7).

He wants to make examples of us – examples of people who are recipients of unheard of grace.

He wants to relate to us – that is the crux of Christianity, after all. Not doing, but relating. All our doing should be a mere overflow of our relating to Him. Walking with Him, communing with Him, responding to Him. That is genuine Christianity.

I found this prayer garden while on a walk with God this afternoon.

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I had thought maybe God would say something profound, something new, during my alone time with Him. But He didn’t. He just reminded me that sometimes I don’t need something more or something new. I just need to be near Him. Walking in silence, aware of His presence, seeing His grace reflected everywhere around me – that is good.

He is not concerned about productivity. He is involved in transformation. And that takes place in His presence – during cultivated, set aside time with Him, and in walking through the dailyness of life with Him. Transforming Christianity is all about Jesus – by Him, for Him, through Him and to Him.

How do you make room for silence in your “everydayness”? What whisperings of God’s Spirit have you heard in times of quiet with Him?