“Lest…one should be swallowed up
with overmuch sorrow”—2 Corinthians 2:7
August 5, 2009: For many days now,
a mother duck has been laying on her eggs just to the left of my front door in
the underbrush beneath some bushes.
While I slept, my housemate was out doing his taxi duties into the wee
hours of the morning. After his shift,
he drove home, parked, and remained in his car listening to the radio as
someone read from the Bible. As he
listened, he suddenly noticed a ruckus in the front yard. First he discerned the outline of a duck—and only
after looking more intently—did he also see the culprit, a fox! He stepped out of the cab and shewed the
creatures away; the fox ran off and the duck lay there as if dead. After a few minutes, the duck got up and
slowly waddled off, dazed and confused.
It took off down the road, around the corner, and eventually—I
imagine—back into one of the many ponds or lakes nearby. Before my housemate went into the house he
checked up on our mother duck. His
suspicion was confirmed! The duck
involved in that open yard ruckus was her.
There—surrounded by many feathers—was a bunch of white eggs left
unattended; with the mother gone, the potential ducklings were sure to perish. All was lost!
And the irony is, even the fox failed to secure a meal out of this.
After my housemate told me this
story, I immediately thought of that scripture verse in the Song of Solomon
that spoke of little foxes spoiling the vine.
I mentioned this to him. He was
amazed! Incredibly, the radio
broadcaster was reading from Song of Solomon and read that EXACT verse EXACTLY when
the incident occurred! Something
transcendent was being said here! After
my housemate went to bed, I continued to meditate and ponder the incident. While thus engaged—and whilst much sorrow
afflicted my heart from another source—I got a cup of coffee and reached for a
book from my library. The book I grabbed
was Jesse Penn-Lewis’ “Thy Hidden Ones,” a
book about—you guessed it—the Song of Solomon!
It was amazingly illuminating and pertinent to both the aforementioned
incident and the feelings of my heart at the time.
Here is some of what Penn-Lewis
wrote:
“‘Oh my dove that art in the
clefts of the rock…Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet
is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely’—(SOS 2:14).
“Hitherto she has known him as her
INDWELLING KING, she has had glimpses of the cross, and has agreed to follow
him in the pathway of the cross; but she has not yet fully apprehended her
position as buried with him by baptism into his death, and therefore separated
from herself, and from all the old life and its claims.
“The well-beloved reminds the soul
of her place in the Cleft of the Rock, because he can recognize her as his betrothed
one nowhere else.
“The bride for the first Adam was
taken out of his side during his sleep; made of his own nature and presented to
him by her Creator—a marvelous foreshadowing of the mystery of Christ and his
Church!
“‘Take us the foxes, THE LITTLE
FOXES THAT SPOIL THE VINEYARDS…My beloved is mine, and I am his; he
feedeth…among the lilies’—(SOS 2:15-16).
“She hears the well-beloved’s
voice, sees his attitude, and hearkens to his CALL TO ARISE…TO FORGET THE
THINGS THAT ARE BEHIND. She listens to
his message about the cross, to his call TO TURN HER FACE TOWARD HIM, BUT—SHE
DOES NOT UNDERSTAND! She is
pre-occupied. She evidently has her eyes
upon the vine…its promise of fruit…the keeping of her vineyard…she has been too
much engrossed in active service, and had NEGLECTED HER OWN VINEYARD. Now she goes to the other extreme, and is SO
OCCUPIED WITH HER VINEYARD as not to be able to understand her beloved’s call.
“It is not enough for thee to rest
upon thine old experience, and comfort thyself that thy beloved is thine, or
that he is still in thy heart feeding upon the lilies of his own planting
within thee. Thou wilt have to learn
that thou must PRESS ON, and walk in his will in sensitive obedience, if thou art
to KNOW the Lord.”
Some of the highlighted words and
phrases are mine and some were hers—but by accentuating these particular
truths—we come to realize something wonderful.
The name of my housemate in this story about the Duck and the Fox is
Christopher, which in Greek means, “BEARING CHRIST INSIDE.” Penn-Lewis’ use of
the phrase “INDWELLING KING” and the context in which she used it now seems
even more prophetic and pertinent. She
used this phrase as an intermediate position between seeing and actualizing,
one wherein the bride knows her Lord—having an internal sense of him—but not as
yet FULLY discerning her exact and
honored placement at his side. It was
Christopher that shewed the little fox away and symbolically the one still
tending to the vineyard. As I slept, overcome
by much sorrow—and having made all my bed in tears—a part of me was attempting
to salvage a shred of hope concerning my vineyard or fruitfulness. But just as Christ upbraided his disciples
for sleeping the sleep of sorrow when vigilant prayer was needed to overcome the
impending hour of testing, so he was telling me to “AWAKE MY BRIDE!” As accentuated earlier, we are “CALLED TO
ARISE…TO FORGET THE THINGS THAT ARE BEHIND,” and to “PRESS ON” to “KNOW” the
Lord.
After I absorbed Penn-Lewis’ words
and the prophetic revelation derived from them, I recalled a symbolic play
entitled, “The Wild Duck,” by Henrik Ibsen.
The core message—“Deprive the average human being of his life-lie, and
you rob him of his happiness”—is a line from the play. The mother duck technically survived the fox,
but her future potential—represented by her eggs—was lost. I felt the Lord spoke to me about impending
doom if I didn’t awake and fight the good fight of faith. To expose my life-lie is to extinguish
present and carnal happiness for the possibility of future and permanent
happiness.
“The Wild Duck” opens with the
grandfather shooting and injuring a wild duck; his dog retrieved it at the
bottom of a pond before it drowned. Then
a series of revelations about past indiscretions begins to unravel the entire
family. Here is an excerpt from a
summary of that play—written by someone else (so to give credit where credit is
due)—but unfortunately I’ve lost the name and source:
“He [Gregers] meddles in the
affairs of a strange family, producing disastrous results. Figuratively
speaking, he lives in a house whose closets are full of skeletons. Over the
course of the play the many secrets that lie behind the Ekdals' apparently
happy home are revealed to Gregers, who insists on pursuing the absolute truth,
or the ‘Summons of the Ideal.’ This family has achieved a tolerable modus vivendi by ignoring the
skeletons (among the secrets: Gregers’ father impregnated his servant Gina then
married her off to Hjalmar to legitimize the child, and Hjalmar's father has
been disgraced and imprisoned for a crime the elder Werle committed.) and by
permitting each member to live in a dreamworld of his own—the feckless father
believing himself to be a great inventor, the grandfather dwelling on the past
when he was a mighty sportsman, and little Hedvig, the child, centering her
emotional life around an attic where a wounded wild duck leads a crippled
existence in a make-believe forest ... To the idealist all this appears
intolerable. To him as to other admirers of Ibsen it must seem that the whole
family is leading a life ‘based on a lie;’ all sorts of evils are ‘growing in
the dark.’ The remedy is obviously to
face facts, to speak frankly, to let in the light. However, in this play the
revelation of the truth is not
a happy event because it rips up the foundation of the Ekdal family. When the
skeletons are brought out of the closet, the whole dreamworld collapses; the
weak husband thinks it is his duty to leave his wife, and the little girl,
after trying to sacrifice her precious duck, shoots herself with the same gun.”
This poignant play is best
described by the symbolism that was the wild duck; the duck’s behavior when
first shot by the grandfather captures the essence of the mood and sentiment of
the play. Speaking of the wild duck,
Ibsen wrote: “She did that, she always does that ... wild ducks do. Go plunging right to the bottom ... as deep
as they can get ... hold on with their beaks to the weeds and stuff ... all
other mess they find down there. Then
they never come up again.” Do enough
damage to a wild duck and it will cling to the last vestiges of grief; rattle
it enough and it will leave off all purpose.
The dreamworld of the Ekdal family was an entrenched delusion that
defined them to such a degree that when it was destroyed by the light of
reality, they never recovered.
Likewise—and as illustrated by the mother duck in the fox/duck
incident—I am in danger of merely surviving a tradgedy, not thriving in its
aftermath.
At the backdrop of this violent
encounter between the duck and the fox (and Penn-Lewis’ and Ibsen’s input) was
myself nearing both a spiritual breakthrough and a material breakdown. Attempting to reach a prophesied level of
spiritual maturity and financial prosperity and fighting back enormous reservoirs
of sorrow over natural desires unrealized, I found myself swinging alternately
to the lowest depths and the highest heights (normally the very signs of
immaturity), however, my actual position or equilibrium (centered and sure) was
only being temporarily disturbed. God is
moving on my behalf, and many strange things are presently happening that I
believe will speak more clearly in due time.
I recently resigned from a good paying job during this weakening economy
to reestablish a Real Estate career that I had previously thrown off.
About five years ago (2004) I
became lovesick over a young woman that did not return my love; this unrequited
love wounded me beyond a measure I could overcome. I subsequently pined away, losing all desire
for any success in any endeavor. Without
heart, without the mainspring of motivation or ambition, I went along
listlessly for more than a year. Sadly,
I often imbibed, got drunk, listened to sappy love songs and bemoaned what
seemed to me to be an irredeemable situation.
Consequently, I stopped working diligently and consistently; I ran up
all my credit cards. I just couldn’t
motivate myself to do even simple tasks.
But eventually God broke through this dark cloud that enveloped my heart
and set me back on the right path. The
object of my desire married another—and when I accepted that fact—the spell was
broken. I even reaped such a wealth of
sentiment and life from the dead that I became a ministry to others that were
also overmuch sorrowful. Then it
happened again! I am still in the throes
of it now (2009); another woman has caught my attention. Without elaboration, this ended the same
way—she married another! Now—(2018)—I am
past these heart wrenching unrequited loves.
I now accept the fact that each of these women represented an idol—a
giant in the land of my heart—that God had to confront me about in order to set
me free. I was under a spell, a
delusion, a life-lie! As Ibsen said, “Deprive
the average human being of his life-lie, and you rob him of his happiness.”
Now that the backdrop has been
painted, here are the recent (2009 timeframe) events and occurrences that tie
in with this initial fox/duck story. I
have been waiting on God to jumpstart me, my ministry and my vocation; I have
been pleading with Him to jumpstart me because I am still a bit
disheartened. I want to be motivated,
work hard and obey His voice instantly; in practice, however, it has been
exceedingly difficult to find my lost mojo. To compound the issue, or to
exacerbate my internal angst, the second woman—though married as I
explained—wants to be my friend and coworker.
She has heard my dreams and seen
the desires of my heart—she has fed off me personally, ministerially and
professionally—and she doesn’t want that to stop; of course, I never wanted it
to stop either. But it is too dangerous
for me to work and play close to someone I have feelings for. I was willing to lay down my life and support
us both in a tremendous joint venture. I
cannot understand how she can dream about us together—and she literally felt an
electrical shock when I first said I loved her—and then dismiss me for someone
not walking with God and obviously not right for her. She also had the temerity to claim she had
obeyed God by doing certain things, one of which was marrying someone I had
prophetically told her not to (yes, “The gifts and calling of God are
irrevocable” (Romans 11:29) ... so in spite of my wallowing listless condition,
the prophetic office I was called to still functioned).
Because I knew she was mine (in my
delusional mind), I kept myself at a distance, allowing love and God to prevail
(though delusional in reference to her, I still practiced a patience born of
God; I retained some spiritual maturity).
I made sure I did not speak from what I knew could be construed as an
ulterior motive. Apparently she deluded herself by thinking that I only
prophesied at a 90%/10% accuracy rate; this allowed her to rationalize away the
Word of the Lord out of my mouth (and gave her the license to pick and choose
what was accurate or not—not by the timbre of the word or by weighing if it had
a divine origin or not—but by her own 90%/10% artificial construct of
interpretation and deception that she had erected within her own mind for her
own benefit). Sadly to say, she failed
the test, failed me and failed God. Of
course, I’m the REAL failure here! Remember, these are merely the rantings of a
delusional heart in love with his idol.
And I keep failing along this
line; I keep placing a demand on God for a wife before success in the field
(business), which is not scriptural (but seemingly impossible for me to
surmount its delusional draw). I can see
me working hard for us, but not for me; I want to work hard for God in response
to sheer obedience, but I can hardly know what that means (when all motivation
has been cut out of my heart).
Nonetheless, she did not choose me—that is a fact—even though there was
always such a transmission of life between us.
I have consequently been in much prayer and anguish over this; I love
her mightily, more than a brother loves a sister. Can I work with her day after day and not be
distracted? Can I play with fire and not
be burned? Our God is a Consuming Fire;
is this how He relates to flesh and blood?
Is this fiery trial to test me ever going to cease?
What does all this have to do with
the fox and the duck incident? Allow me
some latitude and an answer—I believe—will emerge.
Back to work and reality! I’m a Real Estate agent, and just days after
the duck and fox incident, I got a listing out of nowhere. The address of the listing—if you can believe
it—is 411 DUCK HUNTER Ct! Doubtless, this is a prophetic demonstration;
it must be! The fox which chewed on that
roosting duck outside my personal address is thick with meaning and dripping
with irony. I am still trying to put my
mind around it—to interpret the incident prophetically and properly. This is just too coincidental to not have
divine meaning. Here are some of my
initial and miscellaneous thoughts about this DUCK HUNTER address: 411 used to
be the directory number, the number you called to find other numbers (a number
that placed all other numbers at its disposal).
Also, 4 is the world/city number (the number of God’s creative works),
and 11 is the number for judgment and disorder.
Thus, the sound of a trumpet—signifying a verdict (judgment) is reached—and
is being heard by all. Its message is to
converge at the universal address of material completeness to await
sentencing. Every number is up! Every number dialed! Every residence is summoned to a higher
vision! Natural sight is filled up;
God’s material creation is near the end of its usefulness. It is now the hour for true
spirituality. A clarion sound is made
throughout the city, and at my very door—a prophetic demonstration was made—a final
battle of great import played out in dramatic fashion.
Being that this is the first
listing under my new company—a company named after my personal name—is telling,
and knowing I am on the verge of either a breakthrough or breakdown, I cannot
allow the little foxes (those two giant idols ... those two women who stole my
heart) to spoil the vine (of my destiny).
A duck, according to an interpretation found online, “denotes a person
of many resources.” I must find those
resources now! A famous painter of the
1600’s was named Jacob Duck; he painted soldiers, taverns and used symbolism to
convey morality. I was a soldier,
frequented many taverns, and I am now trying to convey morality. Jacob, of course, was the supplanter—the
deceiver—who wrestled with God and was renamed Israel, a prince with God, and
the father of the children that eventually entered the Promised Land. I too must wrestle and overcome/be overcome
by God if I am to birth all of my spiritual potential. I have decided to forsake the idols of my
heart in order to worship the Lord in singleness of devotion—with or without a
limp!
On August 5, 2009—the day I wrote
the bulk of this article—David Wilkerson sent me his Daily Devotional entitled
“GO AHEAD AND CRY !” Here
is some of it:
“When you hurt the worst, go to
your secret prayer closet and weep out all your bitterness. Jesus wept. Peter
carried with him the hurt of denying the very Son of God and he wept bitterly!
He walked alone on the mountains, weeping in sorrow. Those bitter tears worked
a sweet miracle in him and he came back to shake the kingdom of Satan. Years ago a woman who had endured a
mastectomy wrote a book entitled ‘First You Cry.’ How true! Recently I talked with a friend who was just informed he
had terminal cancer. ‘The first thing you do,’ he said, ‘is cry until there are
no more tears left. Then you begin to move closer to Jesus, until you know his
arms are holding you tight.’ Jesus never
looks away from a crying heart. He said, ‘A broken heart will I not despise’
(see Psalm 51:17). Not once will the Lord say, ‘Get hold of yourself! Stand up
and take your medicine! Grit your teeth and dry your tears.’ No! Jesus bottles
every tear in his eternal container. Do
you hurt? Then go ahead and cry. And keep on crying until the tears stop
flowing. But let those tears originate only from hurt, not from unbelief or
self-pity.”
Also on August 5, 2009, Sandi Freed posted an article online entitled
“It's time for a violent turn toward God!”
Here it some excerpts from it (with an occasional insertion of mine,
numbered):
Freed: “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day
of the Lord is near in the valley of decision” (Joel 3:14). Believers, we are in a season which I refer
to as a ‘Valley of Decision’ ... we ... need a violent turn in the right
direction ... we have decisions to make. There is a turning, a releasing of the
old and a new narrow path for us ... We simply have to choose to turn away from
what is old, familiar and hindering us from walking forward in victory ... God
is releasing a sound which we need to heed.
HE WILL TURN OUR SORROW INTO LAUGHTER AND JOY. When studying the ‘multitudes in the valley’
the word ‘multitude’ actually translates as ‘abundance,’ but it is connected to
a noise being made and a rumbling sound. And, even more interesting is that the
Hebrew word ‘multitudes’ is rooted in the words ‘to make an uproar, tumult, cry
out, to disturb, destroy, crush, and (be) troubled and (to vex).’ In other
words, it is not simply a multitude of people in a valley making a decision; it
is also a multitude of sounds being made while making the decision. I believe the enemy has a sound—his sounds
are destructive, non-productive and are in the form of lies and hope deferred.”
Insertion #1: Deep calling to deep is the sound of the sea
of God corresponding to the sound of the sea in us; His nature as a sonar and
an emission of sound waves in water reaching out to those who have the same
nature, thus the same appetite and desire for communication on the level of
depth and intimacy. His voice is, therefore, always a test; like at Meribah,
which has several meanings, God weighs our hearts in measure of discernment and
obedience. One meaning, “waters of
contradiction” seems the most illuminating; other meanings, “waters of strife”
or “chiding” only speak of different voices with different opinions, but the
essence is this lack of unity or “contradiction.” In other words, the chiding or strife simply
arises out of voicing contradictory viewpoints.
God tests us here; His sheep hear His voice—will we? His sheep parses the chatter and identifies
His true voice from so much bleating.
Like as God tested Gideon’s army, incrementally whittling away those
called but not chosen, so He is ever testing the mettle of His people, skimming
away the dross of unbelief and removing the chaff of self-reliance; this is
done in the caldron of contradicting interpretations, ideologies and theologies. We can ill afford to be foolish; we must know
the will of the Lord. Too many voices
cause confusion and freezes initiative.
We must KNOW His voice! It is our
responsibility alone to have ears to hear and eyes to see; a preconditioning
and predisposition toward truth has already been implanted within every human
heart. We must overcome the noise—the
clamoring elements—that try so desperately to distract us from our singleness
of purpose with God.
Freed: “BELIEVERS, IT IS
CROSSING OVER TIME AND WE ARE CHALLENGED TO MOVE FORWARD, BUT THE ENEMY DESIRES
TO OPPOSE US AT EVERY TURN. WE MUST DECIDE TO MAKE A VIOLENT TURN. TURN TOWARD
GOD WITH A VIOLENT WAR CRY AGAINST OUR ENEMY! THE VIOLENT WILL TAKE THE FUTURE
BY FORCE ... Daniel saw the saints of God being worn down by an
antichrist system; however, because of the Blood of Christ, victory was given
to the saints of God! Hallelujah! Know
that when making decisions in this season, there is an abundance of disturbance
from the enemy. If not careful, we will murmur and complain rather than remain
focused on God's Word. The Hebrew root word for ‘multitudes’ is ‘hamown’ or
‘hamon.’ This is really close to the name ‘Haman,’ the Amalekite, who set out
to destroy Esther and an entire Jewish nation ... ESTHER WAS CHALLENGED WITH A DEATH STRUCTURE. SHE COULD HAVE CHOSEN TO
RUN IN FEAR, YET SHE REMAINED STRONG IN HER DECISIONS TO RISK ALL AND TRUST GOD.”
Insertion#2: Haman means “solitary” or “alone” and the
close tie to the meaning of “multitudes” is very significant; remember, the
nations are but a drop in the bucket to God, and we are no more than a vapor or
a shadow past! Amalekites are those “who
lick up the dust” or “exhaust” the Lord’s people; they represent carnality
(flesh which never ceases to war against our spirits). Though our Lord was tender toward the
multitudes in his days upon the earth, he said they only came for the
perishable food. Carnality will
eventually destroy us; at a minimum, it will rob us of our destiny. We must fast and pray and breakthrough in
this final push towards our new day and the actualization of our destiny.
Freed: “In Job 1:8-11, 2:3-5, he [Satan] accused Job of apostasy
(falling away from God). He sent many demonic attacks against Job and the Lord
used it as a test. I believe Job may have considered it a valley also. I know
that there are times when I am being falsely accused by the enemy; it feels as
if I am in a deep, deep valley of despair ... NUMEROUS OTHERS THROUGHOUT THE BIBLE HAVE OVERCOME THE ACCUSER WHO ATTEMPTS
TO SEDUCE US INTO RELINQUISHING OUR ASSIGNMENTS. Satan wants us to ‘come
down from the wall.’ He will say things like, ‘Who do you think you are,
building that church? Why do you feel God would ever use someone like you to
preach the Gospel?’ or ‘You're not worthy to be used by God.’ How did ... others press through their trials
and persecutions? I believe it was a ‘VIOLENT
TURNING,’ a turning in such a way as to ‘focus’ on only what God says
concerning our lives, our families, our finances ... everything! ... I must
turn away from old thoughts, previous patterns of thinking, religious mindsets
as I make a radical, violent turn to Father God, His truth and His
faithfulness. This is a season that the
violent rise up with radical warfare and take the Kingdom by force. And, our
mindsets concerning the Kingdom principles need to turn in a violent way toward
the truths of Christ Jesus! WE CANNOT MAKE RADICAL, VIOLENT TURNS AND
KEEP LOOKING OVER OUR SHOULDERS TO THE PAST. NOR CAN WE ALLOW OUR PAST TO
INFLUENCE OUR FUTURE.”
I would love to water down some of the suggestions made by both David
Wilkerson and Sandie Freed or even from the Duck/Fox debacle and Henrik Ibsen’s
play about the Wild Duck. Because no
matter how you slice it, to cry until you can cry no more is to leave off
something you deeply love and can hardly let go of; and a violent turning of
the mind and attitude is simply a painful and thoroughgoing repentance. And our Duck/Fox war is about leaving off the
good for the best—a repentance not of evil per se, but of yesterday (which has
its own pain)—and a Wild Duck which makes mountains out of molehills and flesh
wounds into spiritual brokenness (exacerbating and magnifying pain out of all
proportion to its real magnitude). Such
are the experiences of the average man; remember, “Deprive the average human
being of his life-lie, and you rob him of his happiness.” I must therefore transcend the average man! Paul speaks of Christians not walking as mere
men, and we must find a way to overcome our “life-lie;” mine that always looks
to a woman to give me support and strength to accomplish my purpose before
God. The duck survived the fox and the
little girl’s gun, but at an enormous price.
Injured and delusional, the wild duck lives on; injured and bereft of
her children, the mother duck also lives on—both ducks suffering enormous and
irredeemable losses. But I must remove
myself from the carnage, from the scene of so much incessant and terrible
sorrow. I cannot go on licking my wounds
and bewailing my losses forever; I have had enough of sorrow! God promised me brighter and brighter days
ahead, but I guess I had more life-lies than I initially realized. Nevertheless, I have decided to obey God and
to trust him for those brighter days ahead regardless of what my eyes tell
me. Violently I turn to you O’ my God!
Another amazing coincidence! And
yes, on our same christened date: August 5, 2009! Oswald Chambers, in his devotional for this
date, said:
“God called Jesus Christ to what seemed unmitigated disaster. Jesus
Christ called His disciples to see Him put to death; He led every one of them
to the place where their hearts were broken. Jesus Christ’s life was an
absolute failure from every standpoint but God’s. But what seemed failure from
man’s standpoint was a tremendous triumph from God’s, because God’s purpose is
never man’s purpose ... There comes the baffling call of God in our lives also
... The things that happen do not happen by chance, they happen entirely in the
decree of God. God is working out His purposes ... If we are in communion with
God and recognize that He is taking us into His purposes, we shall no longer
try to find out what His purposes are. As we go on in the Christian life it
gets simpler, because we are less inclined to say—‘Now why did God allow this
and that?’ Behind the whole thing lies the compelling of God. ‘There’s a
divinity that shapes our ends.’”
Does the fox have you down and out right in your own front yard in
front of God and everybody? Is it
obvious to yourself and others that you are crippled and undone; that your
wings are broken (you cannot fly), purposes undone (so you have left off
sitting on your eggs of future promise realization) and that you are now
waddling down the wrong road (reeling in pain, disoriented and discombobulated)
to find an oasis—any little reprieve from all the harsh realities of this
suffering life—while you await a permanent solution, a pond or natural habitat
to drown yourself in a never-ending pity bath?
Well, as vivid as our imagination might be in this horrible picture of
doom and gloom, let our reality be clarified by God showing up and setting us free
from our captivities—those vain imaginations (life-lies) that defined us for
too long. When God turns back our
captivity we will be LIKE them that dream (see Psalm 126); dreamers dream of
better and future days and they actually experience them—foretaste them, so to
speak—while yet in delusion. But our supposed
delusional state is itself a delusion; when God looks down, has compassion, and
then decides to make our dreams come true—in spite of all the enemies and
naysayers—we will be justified. In
Christ Jesus, this is exactly what God does!
He promises to wipe away every tear, but only after he vouchsafes them
in a jar and rewards those who sow them with a wonderful harvest of joy. So, go ahead and cry today; tomorrow we laugh. Today the lion eats the lamb and the fox the
duck, but tomorrow they lie down together in peace.
