What if the walls of this room folded away, the roof above rolled back, and suddenly Christ’s followers were able to see the future? Would it be tomorrow, or the next day, or perhaps the ending days of our life (think “Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come”)?
Not if God has anything to say about it.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that when GOD speaks of our future, He doesn’t give us the specifics of what happens in our immediate tomorrow. Instead, He speaks of the culmination of each day on our current calendar in a tomorrow that’s always new. The importance of what happens later today, or the day on the calendar that comes next, is nothing in comparison with His focus on trusting Him completely with those happenings. We must trust that He is working all our tomorrows here with an unimaginably good tomorrow over there — a soon-coming-tomorrow “where the mountains touch the sky, where the sun is always shining and where no tear will dim the eye.”
It seems our immediate future here on earth was never meant to be the focus of our desires, or the hope of our soul’s longing for freedom. According to Jesus, we are not to worry about what might happen next, but to seek to live fully and freely with Him, trusting Him to give us all we truly need. (Matthew 6:25-33)
That’s why I find such solace this morning in the old hymn by Ira Stanphill, “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow.” During the years of separation and divorce from his first wife, Zelma, and then her death in a car accident in 1951, Ira sunk into a deep depression. I Know Who Holds Tomorrow was written during that difficult and trying time. Ace Collins writes in Turn Your Radio On that Ira was driving when he began to hum and then sing a song. He was singing about not knowing what the future held but trusting God with the future. Upon arriving home, he rushed to his office and his piano and jotted down the words.[1]
My sister and I are “Dawn-Chasers.”
We often do not sleep well at night for various reasons. Sometimes the night grows long due to physical problems and other times it is… Well, you know, it’s life. At night we long for the dawn to come, light a candle and cling to those things that anchor our souls to that moment of a new day awakening.
As we walk this path together, the “dawn” has come to mean something far more than that delicious first cup of coffee and the loosening up of our aching muscles and bones. It has come to mean far more than another day of the same old thing.
The “dawn” is promise.
The “dawn” is the whisper of joy in sorrow, the glimmer of light behind the clouds. The “dawn” is the sound of sweet music drifting through the darkness from a Voice that calls us to trust Him.
This past night I struggled to sleep due to some physical issues and at one point in the darkness, the tossing and turning, told Google to play my “Worship” playlist. The first song that came up wasI Know Who Holds Tomorrow, and I was stilled, quieted by the song’s opening lines,
The second verse troubled me a bit at first. It speaks of every step getting brighter as the golden stairs I climb and every burden getting lighter with every cloud silver-lined. “O yeah!?” I wanted to shout into the darkness at those lines.
But then, I was quieted again, as I realized the song is beautifully picturing the only “tomorrow” that really matters to my soul — the other side of this difficult climb we’re in right now — the tomorrow that’s in my Savior’s hand and He’s guaranteed He is bringing to pass. That’s a “dawn” that I can chase that really matters!
Many things about tomorrow I don’t seem to understand But I know who holds tomorrow And I know who holds my hand.
As I close these thoughts, I recommend the Peterson family’s singing of the hymn I’ve quoted. You can find on YouTube here: “I Know Who Holds Tomorrow”
And how blessed all those in whom you live, whose lives become roads you travel; They wind through lonesome valleys, come upon brooks, discover cool springs and pools brimming with rain! God-traveled, these roads curve up the mountain, and at the last turn—Zion! God in full view!
Psalm 84:5-7 (The Message)
Julia’s musings, the morning of February 21, 2022…
I am captivated by light. My world is very small, just what I can see outside my window while sitting in my lift chair in our small office. But this morning that small world spoke volumes to my heart.
From my chair I can see the trees at the end of our street and as the freshly risen sun hit the bare trees on this cold winter day, the brightness of the sunlight against the shadows outside of the sun’s direct beams mesmerized me. I couldn’t get enough of its beauty. I was drawn into praise to our incredible God.
The reason my world is small is because my lung disease has taken a dramatic downward turn and I have had numerous occasions lately fighting for breath in battles I never imagined could be so hard. As my body loses oxygen, the natural result is panic as I gasp for breaths that don’t seem to accomplish much, even with my oxygen concentrator at its highest output. It’s at these times that light and dark come to play in my life.
First John 1:15 says, “This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.” I love this verse and love to reflect on it next to John 1:4-5: “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” God is light. Darkness is simply an absence of light. Darkness cannot kill light and no kind of effort can make it go away except for one thing—Turn on the light. Light always conquers darkness.
So, in those moments when my body is fighting for breath, we have learned to pray. We call them breath prayers. In a rhythmic pattern I breathe in and out—God is good (in) and God is here (out).
It is hard for me to even pray because of the terrific fight for breath, so my wonderful husband holds my hand or leans me back against himself and prays out loud for us. “God is good, God is here. God is great, God is here. Thank you, Father, for this breathe. You are good, You are here.”
And as we turn on the light of God and the truths of who He is and acknowledge His presence with us, darkness leaves. It has to flee in the light of God’s tremendous light. Peace comes, followed by breath. God is good.
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[…] [3] “Courage, Dawn-Chaser,” “Are you a Dawn-Chaser too?” […]
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