Shade Tree Wisdom 2/8/08

Remember when you were little going to bed on a summer night with the moon shining. Then you woke up during the night and there, on the wall, was a monster, and you let out a yell that brought mom running and saying, “what is it?” And when she turned on the light, the monster was gone? And you learned it was only a shadow of a branch the moon made when it shone through the branches of that tree outside your window. It was only a shadow. That’s all it was, nothing that would harm you.

Yes, I’m doing my moving around as the doctor ordered, but there is still lots of time to think. One thought that crossed my mind again and again is David talking about the Lord. And among other lines, he says this, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of he shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me, your rod and your staff they comfort me’. Psalm 23, 4. Then “Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.” V.6

Just strikes me that so much of what we are afraid of is only a shadow. It’s fleeting, and will go away. Why? Because Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins, and God has declared us righteous, holy, because He died for us.

I came home from the hospital with 4 pages of directions and suggestions from the doctor. This doctor has a medical degree and has done much advanced study, yet it seems nearly everyone whom I meet knows exactly what I should be doing now. They have no degree, but they somehow KNOW.

And that happens to us in the world. Everyone has his own truth, his own religious knowledge, never right, but always offered firmly. Like “It doesn’t matter what you believe, everybody goes to heaven” or “everybody’s doing it’, or "don’t be old-fashioned". But you know the truth. The truth, and it still is the one truth, is this, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

Lent emphasizes that for us again. Dwell on that. It is rich knowledge, saving truth.

GPD 2/8/08