The Visible Difference
After reading a while I switched off the light and looked out the window at
the dark sky. The moon was a sliver against the blackness and only two stars
shone down from a featureless map. Nothing else, just a fraction of moon and two
stars.
I closed my eyes wishing I could see more. Surely the night sky should be a map
of stars? Where were they? Where were the guiding lights I could not see?
Then I looked again and they were there in droves, a map of diamonds on black
velvet.
But they were invisible until I closed off all other lights and let my eyes
adjust. It didn’t happen immediately, it took time. Everything else had to be
closed off to see the visible difference.
I thought of Isaac who went out into the fields at night to meditate and in the
stillness he saw God’s gift to him.
I remembered the Psalmist who said "My eyes stay open through the watches of the
night, that I may meditate on your promises."
And I found it is when I take Paul’s advice to Timothy and shut out the rubbish
of the world that I see the diamonds of God’s Word. They are like a map of stars
in the sky but visible only when we give them total space. Paul said everything
is made holy by God’s word and by prayer when we close out the ‘plausible
falsehoods.’
Close out the world sometimes and let yourself adjust to being alone in total
space with God’s Word. You will see a visible difference in it.
(References: Genesis 24:63, Psalms 119:148 and 1st Timothy chapter 4.)
Elizabeth Price reprice@dragnet.com.au