NIGHT VISION

To simplify complex technology, night vision goggles or thermal energy detectors or sensors are modern marvels that work like cameras but without sufficient light. Instead, they reflect differences of heat or energy and turn them into images that can be perceived by the human eye. 

For the purpose of our spiritual analogy, the spirit or soul with which our Creator God has endowed us is capable without such high tech devices to receive impressions and guidance from Him at night when we are at rest and with our eyes closed, without natural light. The Bible records countless such cases of dreams and visions. They are not limited to biblical literature; all of us who have a relationship with God, who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, may anticipate such experiences. We can see and hear God speak to us at night.

Of course, not every dream and vision is a spiritual message from God. Some might be nightmares as a result of eating pizza loaded with pepperoni and cheese too close to bedtime. We need to ask God for discernment.

In the Scriptures God often guided His people through dreams and visions through the “eyes and ears of their hearts,” that is, their spirits. They heard and saw clearly and discerned God's will and direction in specific cases through impressions not necessarily through their senses. It requires an openness, a willingness to hear and to obey. “Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” At night when daytime's distractions have faded and all is still, God can more readily break through the tumult and mental noise of the day to gain our full attention.

It is a fact that our minds remain active throughout the night, although our physical bodies are at rest. We should go to bed with our “spiritual antennas” up and tuned in to God. It isn't beneficial to set up road blocks to hearing the voice of God by listening to the late news on TV or reading a novel. Shouldn't we follow the example of young Samuel who was instructed by Eli to say, when he heard God's voice calling him, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening”? At first we may not be accustomed to recognize the whisper of God's Spirit in our spirit; it will come through experience as we increase our openness to hear and see Him at night.

King David obviously had such habitual night experiences with God because he expressed over and over again in the Psalms that he sought the Lord at night upon his bed. There was plenty of light in the darkness long before electricity was invented. “For Thou dost light my lamp; the Lord my God illumines my darkness” (Psalm 18:28). David obviously sang and prayed at night, whether aloud or in his spirit. “His song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life.” “In the night my hand was stretched out....” “O Lord, I remember Thy Name in the night.” “At midnight I shall rise to give thanks to Thee.” Isaiah echoed his nighttime experience, “At night my soul longs for Thee, indeed my spirit within me seeks Thee diligently.” They experienced that God would speak to them in the night as well as in the daytime—and so can we.

Rather than going to bed wearing our spiritual “hard hats” and “ear plugs,” wouldn't spiritual “hearing aids” be more appropriate? The Holy Spirit provides them. God continues to speak in the darkness of the night as well as in the darkness of our problems. Even the visually impaired can see and hear God at night. Rather than tossing and turning restlessly and fighting sleep, shouldn't we become more aware that God might be trying to get our attention? 

Night vision goggles aren't necessary to see Jesus, the Light of the world, at night. “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). He is present with sufficient light to reflect God's image on the retina of our spirit and speak to us when we relax and rest in Him and give Him our undivided attention. All we need to do is to invite Him: “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening!”

WHY THE BUMPY ROAD?

I prayed for and expected a level path when I started on Your Way. “Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me in a level path...” (Psalm 27:11). The Way hasn't turned out as I expected. Why so many detours? 

“Make Your way straight before me” (Psalm 5:8). That doesn't seem to be such a difficult request. It appears to be taking so much longer to get to the goal You showed me. “For You I wait all the day...” (Psalm 25:5). I don't mean to be impatient, but sometimes it's like I'm wandering with the Israelites for forty years in the wilderness. I don't think Your clock is in sync with mine.

Hills and valleys, ups and downs. It makes me dizzy. It feels as if I'm on a see-saw or a merry-go-round. Didn't You promise that You would “make the crooked ways straight and the rough places smooth?” That's more to my liking.

People in the know say that You draw straight with crooked lines. My ways are certainly crooked enough as I follow You. I was under the impression that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. Perhaps my tape measure is different from yours? I'm becoming kind of weary with the length of life's road and it's bumpy condition.

From my perspective it seems that all these road blocks in my path aren't necessary. When You tell me the direction You want me to go, I'm willing to go. I'm eager to obey You, and I quite expect to get there in record time. I started out well but before long something always hinders me and I have to change course. This is how it goes: I am under the impression that I am following You obediently when a door opens before me—but then the door suddenly closes and I have to look for another way to go where You want me to go.

Didn't I hear You clearly? Why do You lead me to doors that always close? Sometimes the path You ask me to take leads through the water, sometimes through the fire, sometimes through the flood. I would rather have gone around those useless and painful obstacles.

All of these stops and starts and detours and delays waste time in my estimation as I'm trying to reach Your Destination.

Oh, You have a more up-to-date *GPS than I do, Lord? But the Destination is the same? It's the journey between Start and Finish that You have planned differently? You have a purpose for what seems to me an unnecessarily bumpy journey? You are concerned with my response and my trust in You when I encounter all these adverse life-road conditions? Yes, I hear You, Lord. I'm trying to understand:

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Yes, I hear You, Lord. Loud and clear. I'm trying to understand. Lead on, O King Eternal!

*GPS aka GOD'S PLAN is SUPERIOR!

VIRGINIA COUNTRY WINTERS

WINTER STORM "JONAS" 2016

Photo 1: Marshmallow Mound tops our deck table with yard stick protruding.
Photo 2: At the right side of the snow plow hides my invisible Toyota.

 SNOWMAGEDDON

Snow fell lightly one January night

(and for several days thereafter)

as if God were in Heaven’s kitchen

making an angel food cake and then dumping it earthward:

He sifted it in heaps over the hills

spreading it smoothly like frosting

over every bare branch

beating white peaks of meringue

against our shrubbery

and making a marshmallow mound

of my Toyota in the lane

(and then obliterated it altogether

with a silk white comforter.) 

He swirled powdered sugar

with abandon down our sledding hill

while all life came to a standstill

in our deep-freezer pond.

But tomorrow (or the day after, I certainly hope!)

the warm winter sun is sure to break forth

bringing rising temps

and when the snow plow

has dug us out at last

our world will morph into a marble cake:

chocolate chip mud morsels

will dot our leaky lawn and lumpy fields

cocoa-splashes will mar

the pristine purity

of night after night when God whitewashed the landscape while we reveled in the spectacular beauty

of God’s Divine Cuisine

from behind the windows

of our warm and cozy home.

Let's look forward and embrace

the pending change of pace:

Our crusted, rutted road will become brown-sugared

with maple syrup puddles.

A lone duck may splash about with delight

in the thin, watery edges of our pond

quacking with delight at the melting sight.

That too is to be enjoyed

as another of God's cookbook recipes.

Who knows?

Certainly the weather forecaster doesn’t!

Virginia's winters always hold surprises:

God may send a second angel

to fly down and deftly apply

another fluffy layer of white frosting

on our chocolate world

before we've recovered

from the recent traumatic snowflake drama

and spread a frothy, finishing fillip

of whipped cream snow

to top His marble cake

or silver crust it all with slippery ice—

wouldn't that too be nice?

I don't dream pensively

(oh well, maybe sometimes!)

for Florida's predictability.

Come what may, I'm here to stay!

I delightfully thrive

on whatever of God's culinary menu

He decides to dish up

for our Virginia country winters!

****

Leona Choy

FRESH FROM THE BAKERY

During my visits to relatives in the Czech Republic, someone in the family left the house early every morning before breakfast to bicycle to the neighborhood bakery. They returned with exactly the number of still warm, freshly baked, large, round, fragrant loaves of rye bread the “Babicka” (grandmother) of the home ordered to provide for her family and any guests or relatives expected that day. No more—no less.

And all the bread that came through the door that morning was consumed that same day. Baked without preservatives, the next morning she would not consider serving yesterday's bread, the leftovers. It would have become hard and stale, inedible. Perhaps it would be fed to the chickens. Nothing rivaled the fresh bread we consumed at breakfast, still warm, spread with home churned butter and preserves from their own orchard. It was always accompanied by freshly ground and brewed coffee with heavy cream from their own cows.

I got so fond of eating that bread that the morning I left for my flight home, my relatives bought me a fresh one, packaged it up, and I carried it as hand luggage on board...the fragrance permeated the plane. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived home, the loaf was as hard as a rock!

It is the same custom in the Land of the Bible. Fresh bread is expected daily. In the prayer Jesus taught His disciples, He told them to ask our Father who is in Heaven, “Give us this day our daily bread...” (Matthew 6:11). It is a petition with a double emphasis: “this day” and “daily” bread, to be sure we get the point. It was a reference to whatever describes our current day's needs, not only for food but whatever is needed to sustain us in any culture. Equally it pertains to Himself, since Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life that came down from Heaven.” A flashback to God's provision for the Israelites in their wandering through the wilderness toward the promised land. That bread (or manna) divinely provided had to be gathered daily—not too much, not extra in case of lack tomorrow because it would spoil by the next day. It was meant to be used up “this day” and “daily.”

It made me wonder whether the miraculous multiplication of the loaves to the multitude by Jesus might not have been a double miracle. The multitude had already been with Jesus attentively listening to His life-giving words for three days (Matthew 15). I'm trying to get my mind around the logistics of that! If the people had initially brought bread with them, they would already have consumed it all, since they probably had no intention of being away from their homes so long. (The "bread" they would have brought would not have been the large loaves my Czech relatives relished, but probably small bun-like loaves or small flat breads. And doubtless the fish were more like sardine-size.) 

It was obvious that the people would have been nearly starving and in danger of fainting. The disciples had obviously taken a survey of what was available and came back to report to Jesus that all that remained was the remnants of one young boy's lunch, which for some reason he had not finished. Perhaps his mom had been overly generous when she slipped it into his lunch bag. By now what he offered Jesus would probably have been hard and stale.

Do you think that when Jesus multiplied the boy's bread, He multiplied it into more stale bread? Wouldn't you suppose that He multiplied the bread fresh and fragrant for the people? Surely two miracles would not have been too many. Would not the bread Jesus multiplied have been the best both in quantity and fresh quality?

I'm still pondering why Jesus insisted on the disciples gathering and conserving the leftovers which were many. What did He want done with the leftover baskets full? Did He perform still a third miracle to divinely preserve the leftover bread fresh as Wonder Bread and other brands that use additives to retard spoilage? I am only speculating and will wait to ask for an explanation directly from Jesus someday in Heaven.

The point is, however, that Jesus instructed us to pray each day for the provision of “this day” our “daily” bread, for the supply of our various current needs of sustenance and of Himself. He makes available to us everything that we need for our present moment, for today. What He gives us is ample, abundant, and generous and meant to be used up this very day. His marvelous grace is available for today. Tomorrow He wants us to repeat our prayer because there is a bountiful, sufficient supply waiting for us tomorrow and the next day—always available daily and not in advance! He wants us to trust Him without seeing the provision for tomorrow. 

Do I trust Him in this way?

FRESH BREAD

A fresh touch from You

I long for it, Lord!

My spirit grows stale

since I'm so fond of trying to eat

yesterday's bread or

spiritual glazed donuts

and junk food.

Each day I need to taste

fresh Bread of Life

prepared by Your hands

in the early morning

baked upon a charcoal fire

as You provided breakfast

fish and bread generously spread

for those who followed You

beside the Sea of Tiberius.

Give me this day my daily bread

Homemade Bread of Your Word

prepared by nail-pierced hands

kindling love in me

while I am fed.

Since I belong to You

I cannot live on instant food

no, cannot walk or work

sustained by man's baked goods alone

even if freshened in a microwave oven.

I must have Your wholesome Word

delivered fresh each day

from Your heart to mine.

Only that will nourish me.

“When they got out upon the land, they saw a charcoal fire 

already laid,

a fish placed on it and bread...

and Jesus said to them,

'Come and have breakfast.'” (John 21:9, 12)