Fires rage across the land and the gray ash fills the sky, polluting the air and suffocating the sun so that it’s a faint circle of light, with no visible rays. On the one hand, it’s sad seeing such little light in the vast sky. Yet on the other hand, it’s amazing that the light is strong enough to still be seen.
Is this a picture of our hearts? Have we allowed fires to rage across our hearts and minds: fires of hate, greed, bitterness, deception, selfishness, pride? They suffocate the Son so that it’s a faint circle of light in our lives, with no visible rays. It’s sad really, for we are to be a beacon of God’s light, a city on a hill drawing others to Him. And while the Son can still shine through our ash-filled lives, do we pollute it enough that people have to look too hard to see that it’s there?
Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? ‘I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.’”
Praise God for His grace, His forgiveness and mercy when we stray. Only He can shine the light we need to stay on the right path. That path is hard to see when the ash of our lives fills the air, unfiltered. Yet He is longsuffering; He does not leave us, but continues to teach and grow us. May these verses spur us on to becoming more like Jesus, spending time in His Word so His light can shine ever brighter in a dark, ashen world.
2 Peter 1:2-8 (NLT) 2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. 3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. 5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. 8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.