by Maxie Heppell

Our neighbourhood is close to sprawling woodlands where you often have to switch on your car’s headlights as the dense leave canopy shades out the sun.

In the summer that is.

Come autumn, the leavy wall of green turns translucent in places until one frosty morning you steal a glance away from the road and suddenly realise that you can see right into the heart of the tree congregation.

And you discover a completely new world!

Of course, your natural instinct would have considered the possibility that the forest stretches far beyond what your eyes could see from the road you’re on, and yet… When you see it with your own eyes, the curtain is lifted on a brand-new scene with new characters and a new storyline.

Sometimes the leafy side is the only side we show this world for it to see and criticise and dissect.  Very few are allowed to see us when the leaves have turned a muted brown and the bare branches have not even a fig leave to cover the shame and your true self stands utterly exposed.

But with the Lord it is different.
He looks from the inside out.
He knows all the empty spaces intimately and He concerns Himself with even the smallest ant under the largest boulder in the darkest part of the woods.
No-one and nothing are insignificant to Him.

It reminds me of the intricately planned and most exquisite craftmanship of the centuries-old buildings here in Europe.  I always stand amazed when I take a picture of the highest spire on a gigantic architectural masterpiece and then zoom in.

For there, way up high, where no one that created it at the time would even have dreamed of zoom lenses or drones or satellite photography, the artist still took time to carve the most beautiful filigree patterns, faces following the sun, the utmost magnificent embellishment caught in a moment that would last a lifetime… yet understanding that no one except himself would ever get to enjoy the exquisite beauty of his creation.

Just like the Father sees what no one else may ever see in you.
He knows it is there.
He carved it.
There is also another side to this.

I believe that when you keep seeking the truth in the deepest part of His Word in all seasons, you eventually uncover another, deeper understanding of our God.  An unexpected unveiling that He shares with those that expectantly travels through the years as the colours change, trusting that a new revelation awaits, discovering a new dimension of God that unlocks new understanding in the same 1,300 pages of the Bible with every passing year.

“Your word is a lamp unto my feet
and a light unto my path.”
Psalms 119:105 CEV

I know now that each road requires its own type of light.

When I venture into the leafy tunnel of seemingly good times, but soon find myself surrounded by darkness, He gives me the light of His Word.

When I stand in the glare of the world’s hunting lamp, stripped from all pretence, He guides my hand along the wall of my roofless dungeon to the dimmable switch of His mercy…

Your inspiration for the week:  Weary traveller

Feel free to visit Maxie’s blog: Genade is ’n dag lank