I’ve been doing more than my usual share of traveling this year. We have a granddaughter who lives in Pennsylvania who graduated high school in June, our eleventh grandchild was born over the summer who lives in Alabama, and Steve and I went on a vacation to Virginia. As I write this I’m in Arkansas visiting my dad then off to a women’s conference in North Carolina. I’m truly blessed that these have all been pleasant travels and the blessings God has given us in this year. During my last flight out of L.A there was dense fog and rain. These are not my favorite weather conditions while flying but I simply have to trust God that radar and everyone working in the control center are having a good day. I was anxiously waiting for the plane to reach it’s cruising altitude to where I would be able to see the vast open sky once again. Sure enough, within a matter of minutes the plane climbed above the clouds and gray uncertainty and the sun was in it’s full brilliance. Oh happy day!
This month I’m reading through the book of Jeremiah in my bible reading plan. I came across a few verses that I just had to pause over before continuing. Among the more prevalent themes of the prophet calling God’s people to repentance and the promise of restoration, there are tucked within the chapters declarations of God’s fixed order in the midst of national apostasy and turmoil.
Jeremiah 31:35-37 tells us, “Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The Lord of hosts is His name: “If this fixed order departs from before Me,” declares the Lord, “Then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever.” Thus says the Lord, “If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,” declares the Lord.
Thus says the LORD: God introduces Himself with extreme descriptions of His incomparable power. He is the One who gives light, the planets and stars, rules over the storms and seas, and commands heavenly armies (LORD of hosts).
Who gives the sun: “This regularity is the consequence of sovereign, divine will. These ordinances are not laws of nature, but of God.” (Alexander Maclaren)
Twice I notice the phrase “fixed order” and while I can certainly see God’s faithfulness in His promise to His people, I am struck with the reminder of His Sovereignty. God’s fixed order remains regardless of the gray and often uncertain way things look or feel. Growing older is teaching me that I simply cannot and will not understand pain and perplexities sufficiently to answer all my questions. I must ground myself in the One who created and commanded His creation to reveal that He is God and there is none to compare in heaven or on earth in wisdom, worth and goodness! Everyday I will be confronted with the inconvienient truth that so much in life is infinitely beyond what I can ever hope to adequately understand.
How thankful I am that this lovely majestic God doesn’t reduce Himself to my need for explanation. Instead He offers Himself to me for Who He is and always has been from eternity past. With that as the anchor for my soul I will always know that the sun is shining above the clouds.