This is a blog that I wrote a long time ago, but thought would be good for another post. The story that goes with it is true and I hope it blesses you as it did me.
Hello readers. Flint JAHbone here with another Cerebration! So let’s cerebrate good times, c’mon!
Recently I was driving with my wife, most likely to a restaurant, and it was sunny so I decided to wear my sunglasses. We pulled up to a red light at a busy street and I waited to make my right-hand turn when my phone vibrated. I looked down and noticed, not the text message I received, but the rainbow that my screen was producing. Not a reflective, up against the ceiling, kind of rainbow, but more like an, oil mixed with water, kind of rainbow. It caused me to think a moment about the science behind why it was happening. Perhaps the natural oils from my face, or the light mist from the humidity was causing refracted or reflected light to become divided, as through a prism, into its individual colors and wavelengths. As we pulled away I noticed that the speed limit sign was doing the same thing, so I wasn’t sure if my deduction was correct. That is to say, we obviously needed more tests. I decided it must be my glasses and I removed them. The next speed limit sign produced nothing without my glasses. Eureka! The glasses were the culprit. “You have to check this out”, I said to my wife who normally humors me when I have these little asides in life. I followed with, “Put on my glasses and look at my phone and then a speed limit sign. Then tell me what you see.” She said, “I don’t know,” probably understanding that I take things a little deeper than need be at times. I asked her to look closer and tell me if she saw rainbows and she said she did. I asked her to remove the glasses and she said she couldn’t see them. Before I could even get into explaining my theories as to why this was taking place, she uttered a simple phrase that rocked my proverbial world. “Interesting how if we change the way we look at things, we can see God’s promises in everything.” Completely floored, I looked at her with the thought that I would’ve completely missed that looking for the reason behind it.
With my wife’s profimple statement (If I can be so bold as to invent a word combining profound and simple), came a flood of thoughts, sermons and even a blog. Sometimes we try so hard to figure out how something is going to work out, what the explanation is behind something that we miss the answer right in front of our faces. The profimple answer is that no matter what stands in our way, no matter how down we are, no matter what we are about to face, God’s promises will hold true. The only requirement from us is to put on our faith glasses and trust that His word is true and that He’ll make sure to perform it. We have to try and see the promises of God through any adversity or trial.
James writes:
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
How can we count it as joy when we’re going through the hard times? Just simply look at God’s promise through it.
David, the psalmist, sings:
4Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
The key word for me in that verse is “shadow”. If there is a shadow, there has to be light. Even if death is at our doorstep, to the christian this is the just the beginning of life. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is hope for the hopeless. In every situation, there is Christ. In conjunction with the 23rd Psalm, Solomon said, ” A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” (Proverbs 18:24 – ESV) Jesus is the friend that sticks closer than a brother. He’ll, “…never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5b; Joshua 1:5b – ESV) Try to lean on these promises and you’ll see the rainbow in everything.
awesome.
Its true perception is everything. Good post, makes you see more of what you have rather than what you don’t have.
Thanks, I really needed to hear that.
Hey man,
very encouraging, thought provoking.