"Beneath the Surface"

     Only God can be with us always.  His presence and activity, however, most often manifest away from our field of vision

    "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts... Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not!" ( Galatians 4:6; Genesis 28:16).

    The eternally abiding presence of God within the believer's heart constitutes the most wondrous feature of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.  "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20).  We can never overemphasize or remind each other too often of this "hope of glory, which is Christ in you" (Colossians 1:27).  Our Lord has given to us Himself.  Moreover, He enters and remains within us not as the King who merely sits upon a throne within our hearts.  He rather works in us as an active and proactive Executor of godliness:  "I will dwell in them, and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).

     We must perceive and believe this truth of a present and engaged Lord.  However, we must also recognize that in our present existence, God works in a manner easily missed if we fail to realize His quiet and inauspicious way.  Certainly our Father can and does part a Red Sea when necessary.  Most of the time, however, He works below the surface of our awareness and view.  Indeed, the Lord Jesus lived the first thirty years of His life so veiled that when He began His ministry, "neither did His brethren believe in Him" (John 7:5).  Ponder this fact for a moment.  The incarnate God lived more than 90% of His lifetime without being recognized by His own family for who He was.  This remains the most shocking truth in all of Scripture to me, except when I remember the theme of this present consideration.  Yes, "present and engaged."  But also "quiet and inauspicious."

    Glorious activity ever teems beneath the surface of our lives as God works all things for His purpose of conforming us to the image of the Lord Jesus (Romans 8:28-29).  Sometimes the energy and dynamism bursts to the surface in open display.  Most often, however, "we walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 7:5).  Our Father is educating about Himself and preparing us for matters of both time and in eternity by this journey of Light as known in the darkness.  He would have us to discover both His heart and His hand, but with much greater emphasis on the former.  Only a "beneath the surface" life such as we presently live can reveal to us the gift of Himself.  The Lord is indeed with us always.  But He is so most often without fanfare, or pomp and circumstance.  Long ago, our Savior's earthly sojourn taught us that our own journey would involve this walk of faith wherein we discover what God can do, but far more, who He is.

"The Light shineth in darkness."
(John 1:5)