Under the umbrella

Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve; he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers of the temple police about how he might betray him to them. (Luke 22:3-4)

Under the umbrella

Morning comes. The sun shines, and what is this ... hope? Joy? Yes, both. They are always connected.

From what miraculous source comes this uplift that fills the soul from earliest morning hours?

Even the gloomiest of Old Testament prophets could write, “Sorrow endures for an evening, but joy comes in the morning.” And so it does. Because that is who God is and what God does.

Joy arises from darkness of soul, and hope from the despair of losing yourself, the person you know you are and can be. It happens as the light of the Love Who Is Everywhere somehow touches and awakens that same Love living in the deepest recesses of our souls.

Whatever happens to us, no matter how lost we may feel sometimes, this Love remains. This Light still shines, however obscured at the moment.

The encroaching darkness of Lent daily moves us closer to hearing the greatest tragedy in human history. The evil one enters the heart of Judas who betrays Jesus to those who hate him. We know what follows: The One who is truly good and fully God among us is rejected, beaten bloody and hung out to die.

But even this happens under the umbrella, within the compass of God’s enduring love and power. 

Evil has power in this life, but a Greater One works in all this. The One who is Love is always at work to make light shine out of darkness, to bring joy and hope from deepest night. In Jesus’ story … and ours.

That is the way God is. Always. And always will be.

Pr. David L. Miller