MY FATHER IS GOD

It has been a long and difficult week. A hard month. A tough year. A long and difficult season. Let's just say, I'm not so much living "on the mountaintop" these days as looking for flashes of light in a deep, winding valley.

Got this week's Soli Deo Gloria column out of the chute this morning, then sat down to doodle around here at the blog for the first time in over a week. Hmmmmmm, what to write.... Not really in the mood for silly, but, then, no one is in the mood for heavy.

Then, a sobering phone call, a hard squeeze on an already bruised heart. Okay, this is just not the time to try to write...

So I picked up the closest book at hand, the Heidelberg Catechism, and began to read instead. Here is what I read:

Question 26: What do you believe when you say, "I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth?"

Answer: That the eternal Father of our lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and everything in them, who still upholds and rules them by His eternal counsel and providence, is my God and Father because of Christ His Son. I trust Him so much that I do not doubt He will provide whatever I need for body and soul, and He will turn to my good whatever adversity He sends me in this sad world. He is able to do this because He is almighty God; He desires to do this because He is a faithful Father.

In his study of the Heidelberg Catechism (The Good News We Almost Forgot), Kevin DeYoung writes this about Q&A 26: "...(God) will turn to good whatever adversity He sends me. The Bible is not naive about suffering. Trusting in God's provision does not mean we expect to float to heaven on flowery beds of ease. This is a 'sad world' we live in, one in which God not only allows trouble but at times sends adversity to us. Trust, therefore does not mean hoping for the absence of pain but believing in the purpose of pain. After all, if my almighty God is really almighty and my heavenly Father is really fatherly, then I should trust that He can and will do what is good for me in this sad world..."

Could these words have been any more timely? A bright torch in the darkness of a scary place! And so I popped right back on here at the blog, to share this with you, just in case you, too, needed some light today.

One more jewel from Mr. DeYoung before I leave to swim through what this day will bring: "We have often heard that God is our Father, which is true, but we don't always remember that the opposite is just as true: your Father is God."

Powerful medicine. The elixir of life.

(Praying for you, my beloved.)