Cloudy and Dark Days

We all face cloudy and dark days. It doesn’t matter your status: single, married, widow/widower, divorced; your wealth or lack of; your physical fitness, abilities or lack of…. we all face cloudy and dark days.

In those times where you can’t see how it will work out, your world is in chaos and spinning, you feel as if you are drowning and going down for the last time. Cloudy and dark days…they exist….it wasn’t so in the beginning. In the beginning, in the Garden of Eden it was perfection, maybe we could call it Utopia, other than it was not imaginary it is real. In that very real place, there were no cloudy or dark days. Oh, but then, the fall of mankind…. the serpent would deceive Eve and then Adam would willingly eat of the ONE fruit God said, Don’t Eat From THIS Tree. For some who may think, well I would have listened, I would have never…….I would love to think I would have chosen differently than Eve, but she was made by the actual hand of God, with a free will and she still made a bad choice. Yet God who created mankind in His own image, who would spend sweet time in fellowship with Adam and Eve said, I will provide a way of redemption. Redemption was required because God said in:

Genesis 2: 16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

That day….. they did not physically die. However, they were driven out of the Garden of Eden, the place of perfection because they disobeyed. In that disobedience, which we call sin, that relationship between the Father and His children was severed. That is why there has to be a Redeemer, one who is Holy, Just, Sinless…. who can pay the price for redemption. Because that day in the Garden our spirt that was alive, that connected us to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, that day, our spirit died because sin entered into our lives, into our hearts and has been passed down through out all of mankind. We are born with a severed or dead spirit, alienated from God and our only Hope is Jesus and what He did on the cross at Calvary.

The Bible uses many illustrations to represent the relationship between God and mankind. The one that spurred what I am sharing today comes from Ezekiel 34: 12 “As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.”

This verse is just packed with goodness. God seeks us out, He is looking for us, He is calling to us. Picture a shepherd looking for one lost sheep. He walks up and down the hills, into the hollers, through the briars, calling out. Why? Because we are scattered, we live in a world in chaos, born with that sin nature that separates us from God.

To me this picture is 2-fold. I think of my dad as a rancher, he had cattle. At times he would go with the intent; to look and buy more cattle. a price would be determined, and he would purchase them. They are now his. He would bring them back to the farm. Now he did not bring them to their new surroundings and place them in a large field; rather he would place them in an area much smaller where they could become used to their new surroundings. He would check on them every day, taking hay, sweet feed, salt or whatever was needed as they adjusted. Eventually Dad would turn them loose in the big field with the rest of the cattle. Remember he was with them EVERY day! It amazed me when he could look out over: all those cows, all those steers, all those heifers and all those calves and say, one is missing! Then the hunt was on. Going up and down the fields, going into the hollers, through the briars, down near the creek, hours being spent. Why? He was looking for that ONE, just ONE that was missing, because he knew……exactly which one…….was not where it belonged.

To me that is a picture of God. He looked for us, He made a way of payment, and that payment of Jesus blood can cover our sins, the price of redemption, when we answer His call. Then once we are restored, reconciled back to the Father, He cares for us, He watches over us as we grow. He also allows our free will and at times we wander, and we are in those cloudy and dark days, He as the Good Shepherd will bring us out, will gather us, will sustain us, he will give us peace.

Why do we wander? Do you have children? Have you taken them to a circus or amusement park? All of those things that sparkle, all those different sounds that get their attention, that smell of a funnel cake. The place that is full of balls where you can dive in and hide and wander…… So many things that get their attention and yet did we not tell them, you stay with me, do not leave……oh but, those bells and whistles are so enticing. As an adult, it may not be the bells and whistles of an amusement park that causes me to forget where I need to be. It may be the new health issue that has caused concerns, it may be the finances of more going out than is coming in, it may be relationships that you are longing to be restored, it may be the unknown of what the future holds…. it can be anything that when we take our eyes off of our Heavenley Father…… that we begin to wander. But He has said: He will seek, He will gather, He will deliver!

Look Up, Keep Serving Jesus, He is Worthy!