Genesis 1:3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Light falling on a person or a thing reveals a lot of information. For we gather information through our eyes and to see we need light. Without light, to us, nothing is. There have been discussions in science, 100 years ago. If things are if they are not seen or known. Is the coffee-cup behind your back there, when you don't watch it? Where should it go you wonder? Well, if you don't give it a name and a sense, it may just be there but without purpose. If it is there at all. 

Is God there if we don't see him? We believe he is. Is he there, if nobody believes in him? We believe he is. That's called idealistic. Thinking things are whether I know it or not. Whether I see it or not. 

Turn the question around and it makes more sense to me. Is there naything if nobody perceives it? God does. There is nothing his light doesn't shine on. And his light changes perception as much as a color added to a spot changes the color of the object. 

If your shirt is blue in blue light, what color will it have in white light? Still blue? or white? God's presence changes the light we live in and many things we used to call blue may well be white.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son....

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son....

Most of us know that verse. If we know only one verse it may well be this. Pondering it in my mind while I listen to some christmas tune, this thought was coming up. Christmas, as happy as we celebrate it, wasn't a happy day. It wasn't happy for God, even though he did what he had decided to do to give us a chance. Yet. knowing all as he did, it cannot have been a happy decision to give his precious son for our salvation. Salvation of a band of disturbed children that wouldn't even value the gift given and not comprehend its immense beauty and intent.

It probably wasn't all too comfotable for Jesus either, being born into a hostile world, into poverty, into certain death. To leave a so much better place behind, even if only for a moment counted short in front of eternity. 

I wouldn't enjoy leaving even my warm and comfortable little place for a stable, much less heaven. Just think! No, it is unthinkable.

Psalm 74:16 The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon.

I love looking at the moon, whether he is bright or barely visible, full or half, he seems to comfort me, just looking at him. For there is a power working in this universe that keeps the sun and the moon and the stars in its appointed place. As big as they are, they should fall or roll around chaotically or stand. Instead they move as if in a complicated dance with grace and precision one towards the other, each knowing its place. Whether you believ in science or not, (I believe rather in God), it is a miracle and a wonder to the eye and the heart. Who taught the moon to dance? Who taught the stars to shine? Who told the earth to spin? God does. In him is the why and the what well hidden. Some hundreds of years ago man thought the earth was flat with the sun and the stars pinned to a coverlike sky. Know we "know" so much more. i wonder, what we will "know for sure" in a 100 years from now. And whether we will know more about the power of God.

Hebrews 11:13 ... they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

The bird again. Have you ever felt like running against walls where a door was supposed to be? As if somebody had removed it, laughing like mad at your confusion and pain? Have you ever done a thing you thought great and good and got nothing but trouble out of it?

What do you do? Praise God, for if it truly was a good thing, the recompense coming from God will be even greater, where this world despises it? Thank God for the adversity? For the impenetrable walls that seem to leave no way out? Like a nightmare or a horror movie, where what is good is mocked to praise the evil deed? This world is - and should be a nightmare - for God's true children. Welcome to heaven. This world will hate the smell of it with fury and call it bad names. 

It'll help get closer to God. Promise.

Psalm 145:14 The Lord upholds all those [of His own] who are falling and raises up all those who are bowed down.

I have often felt like falling. But never as much as lately, when everything I have been working for seems to be taken from me. All things I have worked hard for achieving are eluding me, as if given to somebody else. It feels as if I were falling and falling and falling.  With nobody I would have thought of to be there. All alone.

With nobody I would have thought of to be there. All alone.  - But this is not written to complain. The more I fall, the more I become grateful for the falling. There is a beauty in it, that I didn't know about.  I have to trust that God will catch me somehow. Even if I will get wet. Or have been getting wet. I'll do it again. God is awesome and great. The world has become a sweet and meaningful place by falling, by having to give up my own importance. (Even if I am still choking every now and than, I pray God will see me through the choking as well, I feel like a cow to always chew and rechew things... he knows, he can save.)

Gen. 3:10 And he (Adam) said, I heard thy (God's) voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

Which position is more beautiful? Which is more dangerous? Walking in the light or in darkness? Both have different advantages depending on who or what we are. 

Blending in is usually the safest spot to be in. Which is why many small animals have learned to survive by  mimicking sourroundings, by adapting in color or/and shape. Which is, what Adam and Eve did when they started to fear God's presence. It had become a terror to them. But there is no hiding before the eye of God. Naked we all stand in front of him. Known and seen up into the deepest cell or fiber of body and mind.  Better to get right right away. God will be gracious and forgive. And give a new life out of the shadows. As fearsome as that may sound, it is worth the going. Much more, God is worth the going. Even if it kills. Especially when it kills. 

Gen. 3:8 And they heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God amongst the trees of the garden.

The one person, blending in perfectly without any disturbance to our perception of things is often the one we favour and if that person makes us look good, we'll like him all the more. Until God calls us and in his light, in his presence things may take a shift to the unpleasant. Please, for the grace of God, have nothing to hide to him and be ready to enjoy the evening stroll in heavenly gardens.

The bird tries to blend into his surroundings. Many animals do by mimicking the world they live in. We do by trying to be like everybody else. To be invisible in society. The most invisible man will be most successful.