Oh, Father- why do I run from you?
Why do I lie to myself and others,
And settle for second best?
Why am I so afraid, so weary,
So resentful, so judgmental?
Why is my bedrock pride, and not repentance?
Why is arrogance my middle name?
Why do I not seek you out
And cry to you as a child calls for its mother?
Why do I pay no heed to your still, small voice,
Caressing, embracing, guiding and loving me?
Oh futility! oh loneliness!
Oh sadness! Oh bitterness!
This is a true account about a missionary who goes to Hong Kong and is led to the Walled City to minister to the inhabitants there.
She describes the Walled City as a place of desperation where the people living there are either gang bosses, who control most of the local population, or drug addicts using heroin or opium.
Through Jackie’s eyes we see the Power of God as she prays for these people and many of them recover from their addiction without going ‘Cold Turkey’.
The rain pours.
Rivulets of angry tears
Streaming down,
Battering like stricken palms
Against the window.
Incessant, soaking the ground
With a ferocity
That overwhelms the thirsty soil.
Drops hurled down from above-
Not the tender, misty spray of a summer shower,
Or the refreshing touch of an autumnal soak,
Which caresses and sustains the fading berries one final time.
No, this is relentless-
Angry, determined.
The sun hidden away by consuming cloud.
It’s radiance and warmth smothered by an unforgiving sky.
Subdued, oppressed.
What is it about butterflies that I so love? Is it their beauty, and their grace? Is it their strength in flight, those wings beating so fast? Is it the transformation their fragile bodies go through to pass from ugliness to magnificence? And yet, they live so fleetingly- their exotic flight but a snapshot in Creation’s eternal portrait.
In these delicate creatures I see humanity. In our Father’s eyes we are things of great beauty, moulded through love, and set free to fly. Yet, we flitter from all that comes against us, driven by our need to run, to hide, to search – unsettled, vulnerable, afraid.
Imagine looking at a stage and seeing a lone saxophonist playing some notes; the notes are few in number and seem somewhat disjointed. Then a violinist arrives, and the sound of the violin blends in with the sound from the saxophonist. Over the next forty-five minutes more people arrive with different instruments, and you hear the ebb and flow, the highs and lows of an amazing Orchestra playing beautiful sounding compositions.
Wisdom is about knowing how things work together. For example, it’s knowing that we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Genesis 1:27-8, Psalm 139:14), and acting accordingly. It is about seeing God as He is (Prov 9:10), and ultimately knowing Him as our Father (Ps 68:5, Matt 6:6, Eph 2:18).