“For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock” (Psalm 27:5).
The Psalms are filled with knowledge and encouragement. Verse 5, above, gives me enough strength to fight through troubles and live a useful life. I know I am well protected. I thirst for God’s presence in my life; I thirst for the living God. “In God have I put my trust . . . that I may walk before God in the light of the living (Ps 56).
All throughout the Bible, both New Testament and Old, there are a multitude of accounts of man, led by God, overcoming and triumphing over our materialistic, short-sighted world. In all instances, it is the Spirit of God that prevails. Our leaders remind us that the darkness we walk in, that is – normal life, is reality; but I say it is only reality of we forget that God is the true light of Life.
Where many people look at society and see the promise of goodness, I see the darkness of man’s greed; I see the presence of jealousy, disease, and oppression. These are not in God’s world; these phantoms of society are missing Truth, Love, and, let’s face it, eternal Life: what’s the old saying? “You can’t take it with you.” When my mortal body dies and I enter God’s pure realm, I need not prepare with false promises for the death of the body is natural.
I believe that God is Good.! (That’s period, exclamation point!) His Grace and Mercy cover us as a warm blanket on a winter’s night. Arise, shine, for God’s Glory is upon us (Isaiah). We call the works of God miracles; and they are miracles in our daily lives as humans; but for God, they are merely the natural gifts a parent gives a child who is loved. And we are loved!
As Jesus lifted people from mortal death, so we are lifted into the spiritual realm of God when our bodies are no longer necessary. We are blessed as God’s children of Love and Truth. “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined (Isa 9:2).” Life is, like Christ, “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.”
© Russell Kendall Carter
Meditating to Heal 