"As you look at the days before you, you see a twisted, complicated path, with branches going off in all directions. You wonder how you can possibly find your way through that maze. Then you remember the One who is with you always holding you by your right hand. You recall My promise to guide you with My counsel, and you begin to relax. As you look at the path ahead, you notice that a peaceful fog has settled over it, obscuring your view. You can see only a few steps in front of you, so you turn your attention more fully to Me and begin to enjoy My presence. The fog is a protection for you, calling you back into the present moment. Although I inhabit all of space and time, you can communicate with Me only here and now. Someday the fog will no longer be necessary, for you will have learned to keep your focus on Me and on the path just ahead of you." Jesus Calling Devotional November 16
"I'm still in Your presence, You've taken my hand. You wisely and tenderly lead me, and then You bless me." Psalm 73:24
"We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us. But for right now, until then... we have three things to do... trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly..." 1 Corinthians 13:12-13
The written word is my love language. And since God knows it is, He graces me with extravagant gifts in the language of my soul. Words evoke such emotion in me. Such worship and resolve and when God meets me personally and whispers beautiful words of promise, comfort and strength, I melt into a happy little puddle of sunshine yellow butter.
The words above, both in the devotional and in the scripture passages, answer the cry of my heart so directly that it takes my breath away. At this stage in our journey God truly has us standing in a deep fog with no foresight as to what lies ahead. We continue to close big doors behind ourselves, doors that seem essential to survival, doors named house and work. It is like we are standing in the wood between the worlds in Lewis' classic, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Only in our wood, the air is not warm and sleepy with sunlight filtering through the leaves. In our wood there is deep fog and a sense of not being able to move forward until one feels the pressure on the hand and that Gentle and Assuring Voice that affirms "This is the way, walk in it."
I can't say fog has ever been one of my favorite manifestations of the elements. I'm more of a puffy clouds in a big blue sky kind of girl, and I love, love, love light. I have an aversion to blinds and window treatments because what are they really there for but to shut out the view and diminish the light. Big, bright windows with views opening out into the wild blue yonder, that's what I love. But right now God calls me to stand in the mist and not resist. To learn to be still in this muffled, mysterious place where there is no view, and very little light. And in the stillness, in the mist, when I cease struggling, a deep sense of peace settles over me and I realize that my other senses are heightened. I can't see that He is near any more than I could if the air was clear. But oh, I SENSE it. I FEEL it. I HEAR His voice as if amplified and I learn what it is to TASTE and SEE that the Lord is good. Precious experiences that lead me to embrace the beauty and wonder of the mist in this wood between the worlds.
