Into the Light

When you have been hidden for a long time, there is apprehension about coming into the light.  It’s not as if the hiddenness was intentional.  The season you were in just lent itself to being unseen, anonymous, and easily looked over.  Most time spent outside of public worship was spent behind closed doors with little interaction with the world.  But it was in this dark place, alone that you grew.  Now it was not dark as in a Plato’s cave.  It was not all merely illusory.  No, the darkness was just a hidden away place, like a secret garden surrounded by high walls, sheltered from the world, like a small plant surrounded with a particular protective covering to keep it from being eaten.

But the tree is no longer a seedling or even young.  It is passed the point of being able to be destroyed by those that might come along and seek fruit from it’s branches.  It has become strong and tall, although certainly not without imperfection.  Quite the contrary.  There are certainly imperfections, there always will be.  

Yet there is a voice calling you to come out, to come out of hiddenness.  And it is a little disconcerting and uncomfortable.  After being sheltered for so long one feels a little ill-at-ease with the newness and the exposure, fearing being consumed.  But you will not be consumed.  You will stand.  For in the hiddenness, in the quiet you were learning, learning where true strength is found.  The reason you stayed hidden is because you were in it for the long haul, not just a falling star that lasts but a minute.  Though grand, it is seen by few.  

Our Lord had been in hiddenness.  The Son of God hidden in plain sight. He didn’t stand out.  He wasn’t extraordinary to look upon.  He learned.  He grew in stature and in favor with God and man.  Part of me would like to imagine that He loved the obscurity, the shelter it provided, the ability to see people that were not putting on any airs.  No one assumed anything around him.  He was just one of them and he liked it, because he loved those he was around.  Truly.  Change is hard, atleast for the human part of us.  

But for the divine part, the revolution is a must.  It is why you are here.  And often it happens on a day like any other day and most often comes as a surprise, because it doesn’t seem like you’ve changed that much from yesterday.  Why are you somehow “done” now?  I don’t say “done” as in without defect, without inadequacy and flaw.  But done more as in the time has come.  

For 400 years the Israelites had waited for a redeemer, crying out to God for someone to come and set them free from their slavery.  They were slaves and their parents and their grandparents had been slaves.  They had lived their entire lives in slavery.  

And then in the far-off distance Moses noticed a burning bush that was not burning up.  He went to investigate.  And before he knew it, he was taking off his sandals and standing on holy ground.  A ground prepared for over 400 years.  For God had known in the time of Joseph, when the Israelites were welcomed into Egypt as heroes, that eventually they would become slaves, and one day He would free them.

Well today was that day.  Why that day?  Only God knows.  

And then there was Christ.  He had been living a quiet life, no big sermons, no earth-shattering miracles.  There was a wedding in Cana.  A friend of the family.  They ran out of wine.  How unfortunate for them and their reputation.  

But today was a different day.  In fact, creation had been waiting since the dawn of time for this day, like none other. 

“Do whatever He tells you.” 

And the countdown began.  Jesus knew.  He felt the weight of it.  He was ready, naturally, but that breaking out of the darkness, of coming out of obscurity- He knew things would never be the same.  For he loved the quiet, loved climbing the hills unknown to the world, not chased by a crowd.  There was no crowd and there was no one following.  

But today was a different day.  

Perhaps today is the day that God is calling you to step out.  Today is the day to be strong and courageous, not to shirk back from the work that you are called to, afraid you will not make it, afraid you will fail.  Rather this is the day you are called to go forth and to take the land.  There will be mistakes, hardships, and disappointments.  

But you were born for this and today is that day.