The Unseen Life, Part 4

Psalm 139
 
*  I gazed out of the window, from behind my study table, on the 4th floor of our initial rented apartment in the city, marvelling at the sheer compactness of the community: wall-to-wall, roottop-to-rooftop, stretching for a mile back. With staggering unemployment, especially among a minority people group, able-bodied men gathered in groups along the streets, marking time! I pondered,
“Will they ever come to know and love you, Lord?” 
Suddenly, a gloom obscured my concentration, and before I was able to take stock of what was happening, my thoughts were disrupted: 
“You are labouring hopelessly. These people will never know your Lord. You will soon find out how powerful I am!” 
My memory then seemed to go into overdrive, retrieving all the stories on Satanic power that I had heard. Immediately, a quiet voice gently spoke,
“You are safe. Resist him and he will flee from you.” 
The despondency lifted as quickly as it appeared. 
 
*  It was our first experience of the intense heat during the country’s dry season. At around 11.00 pm, the shouting, and banging on our home’s wooden wall, woke us up in a jolt. When we looked out from our upstairs window, our neighbours, with their children, were all standing in a group outside our home, and men were trying to put out a fire engulfing a house opposite us, fifteen feet away. We quickly dressed and joined them. A sudden burst of automatic gunfire sound from a distance sent us scattering everywhere for cover. What was happening? At about 10.00 pm, an opposing group of fighters crept into our corner of town, and set alight 20 homes.

Standing around in the moonlight with our neighbours, a voice suddenly said,
“Go to the dark side of your home, Gerald.”
I looked at my wife; we were the only two English speakers in the crowd. She was talking to one of the neighbours. It couldn’t be her! I was too tired to think straight and ignored it. Then a minute later, the same voice sounded more emphatically,
“Gerald, I want you to walk to the dark side of your home!” 
 
I went into the house, got a torchlight, as treading on a snake may prove fatal, and went to check out the other side of the house devoid of moonlight. A long pole, with a piece of kerosene-soaked cloth wrapped around one end, was lying next to the wall. If it was raised, it would just reach the edge of the coconut-leaved roof of our home. I walked over to join the others, holding on to the pole. One of the young men saw me, and came over, sniffed the cloth, and asked permission to take it away. It was then that I noticed how still the air was that night. If there was a slight breeze, the whole corner of our town would be set alight by the embers. 
 
Still in shock, I connected the dots. The stray dog, that we fed every evening, was barking aggressively outside our home around 10.30 pm. I woke up thinking, perhaps she discovered a snake. We just leave the snakes we find, from time-to-time, in the house, alone. More likely, Blackie was chasing away the men who were attempting to set our home on fire. She would normally not stay around after her feeding, but wandered around the town. But that evening, she was drawn to our home. 
 
Fifteen minutes passed. The rebel Commander arrived with several of his bodyguards. He explained that the opposing group had decided to attack the town. He assured me that we will be safe, and he would place guards around our home. 
 
We were already in bed the following evening, when we heard knocking at our front door. We lighted a lamp, and to our surprise, we found three young men standing outside. Each carried a shining M-16, with a string of grenades across their shoulders. We invited them in, and my wife quickly brewed some local coffee. They introduced themselves, and we realised they were related to different folks we knew who lived around us. They said they would be patrolling our vicinity that evening. 
 
I was intrigued by the interplay between the obvious protection of God that evening, and the rebel commitment to safeguard our corner of the town. I am certain that the latter undertaking brought a measure of relief to our neighbours during the remaining months of the drought. This was so typical of our Lord in His guardianship over us; quite apart from His invisible protection, a human physical presence (viz., the guards) provided the tangible assurance for our material sensibilities.
 
*  The perception of reality is totally dependent on our personality, upbringing, and frame of mind at the crucial time, which will colour our insight, and hence, our judgment. Life-changing events have a propensity to create an unsettling new framework, that at times, may challenge our faith in God. These, sometimes traumatic occasions would naturally elicit a combination of reactions from our heart and mind. If we are unable to acquiesce and accept the apparent Divine 'status quo,' we may just numb ourselves and not react. Perhaps, we may be confused, or even angry, with the unfathomable ‘whys?’ of the event(s). And nearly as often, the Lord appears to remain silent and distant. Did we unconsciously shut Him out? How do we get involved in the process of Divine attitude-moulding? Let us look at how King David processed his regal difficulties in Psalm 139; probably written during the initial years of his reign.
 
It is noteworthy that David was not seeking answers to his situation, however grave they were (vv. 19-22). Instead, his mind and heart took hold of Who his Lord was; one could claim, he re-enumerated God’s faithful track record with himself. It was not an easy accomplishment, as it meant putting aside for a moment the intractable issues that had preoccupied him. But because he knew that God was intimately acquianted with all his ways; even while he was in his mother’s womb (vv. 3; 13-16), David concluded that His God knew precisely his immediate predicament. God’s comprehension was not only total, but He had committed Himself to be with David in his ‘darkest nights.’ For even “the darkness of night is as bright as the day to Him” (v. 12). When David grasped the full impact of Who his Lord was, his reassessment of his own dilemma was utterly revealing - “Search me and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts; see if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the everlasting way” (vv.23-24). Questions may remain unanswered, but our attitudes and their accompanying reactions reveal the tell-tail signs of our faith, or lack of it, in Him. Our Father’s heart is not unmoved by our human struggles and hurts! ABBA FATHER.