Last night, I went outside around 2:00 AM to watch the Orionid meteor shower. The stars were brilliant - dazzling - diamonds in the pitch black night sky. The sky was completely clear. No clouds, no haze, just me staring into the infinite and the infinite staring back at me. It was gorgeous. The meteor shower was fantastic. I saw one so big it had to have touched down somewhere in Kentucky.
But tonight, the sky is completely overcast. That's not really a surprise, I guess. It's been raining A LOT here lately. The night before the meteor shower was cloudy, the night before that was cloudy, the night before that, the night before that, and the night before that... All cloudy.
But last night? I saw stars so distant and so faint that the only way I could actually tell I was seeing them was by not looking directly at them. The incredible depth of the universe was laid out for me on a scale so huge that I could scarcely take in what was actually visible to me, and I still knew the entire time that there were millions of things I couldn't even fathom being able to see. I saw so much I broke my mind.
So I got to thinking.
Sometimes God pulls back the curtain when He's ready to show us something pretty spectacular. We've just got to make sure we're watching.
You're gonna go through hard times. You're gonna have rainy days and dark, cloudy nights. Nothing on this earth will ever stay perfect forever. Sorry to break it to you, but that's just how it is.
But the good news is that God is still watching out for you, and He's still reaching out to you. In the middle of heartbreak and tough times, it's understandable to feel alone and abandoned. That's only human, and you can't expect to be anything more than that. Faith allows us to hold onto our Hope that things will get better, but sometimes our fear and despair outweigh even the strongest of Hope and Faith. Life is hard. It happens to the best of us.
But it is in those moments that we are the most ready for God to work something enormous in our lives. It is at those times that we not only want and need God to show us a sign, but we're aching for it. We're ready for it.
Read 1 Kings 19. Yes, the whole chapter. It's only 21 verses, it won't kill you.
Elijah was at a pretty miserable point in his life. He's got a death sentence on his head, he feels completely alone, and he's to the point that he's actually praying that God will kill him. And this is DIRECTLY AFTER the experience with the priests of Baal on top of Mount Carmel, where God torched His altar with heavenly fire, even after it had been completely covered in water. Even after such a direct experience with God, Elijah is at just about the lowest point a person can get to. So what does God do? He pulls back the curtain. He sends the wind, the earthquake, and the fire. He pulls back the curtain and lets Elijah know He is still there. God lets Elijah know that he isn't alone. God lets Elijah know that things will work out.
Sometimes things get miserable. Sometimes things get downright - there is no other word for it - depressing. Sometimes things get really hard. And it is in those times that God pulls back the curtain to show you something pretty spectacular.
Just make sure you're watching.
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