Horrible Things. He Shows Up.

Here’s what I hate: horrible things are happening all around us. 

I shed a lot of sad and angry tears this weekend—for families in Connecticut and for friends near by who are struggling. 

Life is looking very bleak and hopeless.

On Sunday morning, I was struck by the fact that life was probably very bleak for the Israelites during the 400 years of silence.

400 years of silence.  400 years in which God, who had once communicated with His people through the prophets, was quiet.  In Malachai 4:5-6, God speaks about Elijah and then He seems to disappear. 

What was happening during that time?  Perhaps people were not following God.  Perhaps women were being mistreated. Perhaps innocent children were killed for no reason.  God’s house was even desecrated in 171 BC when the Syrian Epiphanes walked into the Holy of Holies.  How dare he!  Where was God then!?

I do not pretend to know God’s timing nor do I understandHis ways.  But, I do know one amazing thing that happened during those 400 years of silence. 

God was not forgotten.

Unbelievably, when John the Baptist comes on the scene with the first word from God in a very long time, everyone knew exactly to Whom he was referring.  They may have had a very misguided, wacked out, politically polluted religious system by that point, but they still remembered God’s name. 

And they still longed for His presence.  

They expected God to send a strong leader and a military hero and save them once and for all.  But, the Person God sent was a child who would become a carpenter and a teacher.  And yet, He would indeed make the way for salvation because He was God.  

It’s just that none of what happened was done the way the people expected.  His humble birth, His unusual life, and His sacrificial death were not what the people had envisioned for salvation.  But that is, of course, because God does not do what we expect or demand.  

I think God is more interested in souls than bodies.  He’s more concerned with the government of hearts than of political parties.  He shows love to individuals, offers grace to everyone, and eternal life with Him to those who open their hearts to Him.

So, just because life is dark and confusing does not mean that it will always be that way.  Just because it feels like God is silent, does not mean we should forget His name or stop longing for His presence. 

JJ Heller says it well in her song Back Home.

Don’t let your eyes get used to darkness.  The light is coming soon.

Don’t let your heart get used to sadness.  Put your hope in what is true. 

No matter how the wind may blow, it cannot shake the sun. 

Lay your sorrows on the ground.  It’s time to come back home.

When the future seems uncertain, like the coming of a storm, your loving father carries his children when they can’t walk anymore.

Here’s what I love: Jesus was the answer after 400 years of silence and Jesus is still the fulfillment of God's comfort. God may not show up in the way we want or expect Him to, but He always shows up. In fact, He's here now--counting my tears, calming my fears, and somehow strengthening my heart.