"Our Dwellingplace - Past, Present, and Future"
We've all had moments in the past that simply seemed like moments. No lights flashed. No bands played. No bells and whistles, and nothing of import or significance seemed to occur in the experience. Looking back, however, we see those seemingly insignificant moments as seminal and of powerful influence regarding where life led us, or rather, where God led us.
"Lord, Thou hast been our dwellingplace in all generations" (Psalm 90:1).
We must never journey to the past without God. He was there in every moment, working in our hearts and lives to lead us to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ before we believed, and to faithfulness to our Savior after our new birth. While our Heavenly Father certainly does not determine everything that happened in days gone by - He did not cause our sins, or the sins of others against us - He nevertheless coordinated the good, the bad, and the mundane in accordance with His loving purpose in our lives (James 1:13; Ephesians 1:11). Thus, we may look back and see moments fraught with meaning, including those we now realize glimmered with the most brilliant light despite our inability to see. Such awareness graces our journeys to yesterday in the realization of how our Lord has indeed been our perpetual dwellingplace.
For me, I think of the evening Frances and I realized God's wondrous purpose for our life together. We had been friends for nearly a year, very much enjoying each other's company. We did not think of each other in terms of romance, however, until the night when we visited a restaurant together after church (something we did on a regular basis). For some reason (God's reason, of course), I reached across the table, took Frances's hand into mind, along with her heart. More than 43 years later we look back on that moment with amazed wonder for the gift we were given. That blessed evening, which seemingly began like so many others, ended with our having passed through a blessed threshold for which we join the Apostle Paul in his joyous exulation: "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church throughout all ages, world without end, Amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21).
God fills all the moments of His trusting children in Christ's lives with eternal purpose, meaning, and significance. Our limited spiritual vision prohibits us from seeing most of the coordination, but we must passionately believe that in His working to conform us to the spiritual and moral image of Christ, "all things work together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28-29). What moments of this day will we look back on with the realization of their particularly vital importance? Regarding many of them, we cannot know. Again, however, we can allow the light that shines in every moment of our lives to fill us with the peace that "all things work together for good." Yes, we journey to the past with God. We experience the present with Him. Whence we go in the future, He will await us there. The moments, all of them, matter so much. May we open our eyes and our hearts to see more clearly see the Divine dwellingplace of our yesterdays, todays, and forever, or as the Apostle Paul confirmed…
"In Him we live and move and have our being."
(Acts 17:28)
Weekly Memory Verse
"Lord, Thou hast been our dwellingplace in all generations."
(Psalm 90:1)
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