February 2018
“Because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)
My 13-year-old daughter, Naomi, composed a piano song for the first time, called “The Sunrise.” It was in honor of my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary this month. How many marriages get to last this long? Whether the marriage is derailed by differences in values, financial problems, illness, infidelity, addiction, miscommunication, loss of trust or respect, etc., the statistics are stacked against marriages lasting. Marriages will go through seasons. Some seasons require more work than others. My 72-year-old mom shared in front of friends and family that many times her marriage could have ended. I was shocked. However, she pointed to Christ as the one who made it possible to overcome and persevere through the mistakes, failures, and conflicts in their 50 years together. As shocked as I was that she was so transparent, it quickly turned to a sobering gratitude to be able to witness the grace of God working in my parents' lives. His faithfulness endures from generation to generation.
As a church this January, we were called to pray and fast, and specifically to find rest in the Lord. During this time, He spoke to me in His quiet and gentle ways. He spoke through his Word, in songs of worship, and through my daughter. The symbol of the rising sun, from Luke, and the song from my daughter, served as great reminders of the Lord’s mercies that are new every morning, and of His unfailing love for me day after day.
Luke 1: 78-79 says that the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness to guide our feet into the path of peace BECAUSE of the tender mercy of our God.
God will shed light in our dark times, on our blind spots, our mistakes, and our failures, and give us a road map out that leads us from chaos into peace. From anger to forgiveness. From disconnection to connectedness.
The love that Christ models is patient, kind, does not envy or boast, is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way, is not irritable or resentful, does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. God’s love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Corinthians 13).
Whatever challenging season you may be going through in your marriage, God will guide your feet one step at a time into the path of peace that only He can provide. Humans are all imperfect responders. We’re self-centered. We act as if we are entitled. We jump to conclusions, we misunderstand, and we become prideful sometimes. We struggle with reconciliation and forgiveness. Thankfully, God’s love is perfect and complete, lacking nothing. God wants us to first know how much He loves us. Then, out of that knowledge of His love, we come to love Him and love one another. An important way we love God is by surrendering our desires and wishes for His desires. We need a humble heart to do this. Thankfully, God gives us His strength to love others with a Christ-like love, because we can’t do that using only our own abilities.
Let us pray that we can surrender ourselves fully to the Lord, and ask for Him to shine His light into our blind spots, failures and sinful ways, so that we can experience His path to peace. I thank God that His mercies are new every sunrise. His mercies are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness.