Sparks In The Breeze

Revelation 7:17 -- "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

In the low, blue light of the living room I look about and see the guys deep into the action-packed throws of a newly purchased DVD from the $5 bin at Walmart. Their eyes are glued to the screen and light up at the sight of the weapon wielding anti-hero who has just made a perfect shot using a security mirror and a gun designed to allow soldiers to shoot around corners. I think I can actually see them all drool. This anit-hero [we later discover is actually a bad guy] is so afraid to look around the corner that this amazing weapon is pulled from some strange secret and invisible compartment in her very tight outfit. She is hiding. She is using a weapon bigger than her arms, but somehow makes it look like she's done it forever.

And with this magical and wonderful machine [which I have discovered really DOES exist] she does not have to peek around the corner. So terrified of what she cannot see, she managed to make her escape without having to really face whatever future terrors might lie in wait around that blind corner.

I could wax poetic about the blurred realities and falsehood's portrayed in movie gun fights as compared to a real battle - but there is no point in trying to explain the obvious. The thing that caught my attention is that we - out here - on THIS side of the silver screen - are often NOT afforded a magical corner shooting gun and a perfectly placed security mirror. Nope. So often, we have to take that blind corner.

Call it trouble. Call ME trouble.

Job 5:7 says "Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward."

The first thing that popped into my head when I read this verse in Job is an image of our grounds keeper, Baba Tennis, in Africa - as he pushed a large tree further underneath the giant metal rain tank that provided our little house with water. The trunk was set on fire. It would burn continuously. A unique method of obtaining hot water, the end of the tree would burn down and Baba Tennis would push it deeper into the flame - ensuring the even and constant burn of that huge log. Every time he did this, a storm of sparks would explode into the air around him, drifting onward and upward until they burned out and lost the heat that allowed them to defy gravity for a short time. It never failed. These sparks would take flight in a beautiful glow with the graceful choreography of a well rehearsed ballet.

Job says that as surely as those sparks will take flight and float upward, WE are born into trouble. BUT .... WE cannot hide from a blind corner and use magical weapons hidden in pockets we didn't know we had.

There are moments when I long for a well-placed security camera and an amazing machine. There are moments when I don't want to peek around the corner because I'm afraid of what might be hiding there. There are moments - sadly - when I don't want to pick up the phone to check on a loved one, because I'm afraid of the outcome. What if there is no answer on the other end of the line? What if the news is bad?

Here is the thing - we can't hide from trouble. Job was right, there isn't a single human being on the planet that can avoid loss, turbulence, or speed bumps that catch us by surprise. What we CAN do, is cling to the promise that God will take the tears. All of them.

Revelation 21:4 grants us the promise of reprieve. When we are called home - called to meet our Savior face to face - there will be no more pain. No more sorrow, no more crying, no more death. [no more shingles, no more bronchitis, no more aids, no more cancer]. These things will have all burned out and and fallen away like the sparks that billowed out from underneath our rain tank.

In the mean time, we can allow the tears to fall gently down our cheeks, because we KNOW - we have this wonderful blessed assurance - that God will catch them. Every single one.