Grace for All Seasons
Isaiah 18:4
For thus the LORD said to me: “I will quietly look from my dwelling like clear heat in sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
Don’t you wish we could really drink in this springtime visual today, friend? How much sweeter would the portrait of ‘clear heat in sunshine’ be if we were reading it from our outside porch-swing, on a cool spring morning, right as birds begin to sing and the sun’s rays start pouring through the trees? How much more vibrant would this metaphor of ‘a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest’ be if we could read it in the coolness of evening, under the moonlight, surrounded by little prisms of sparkling dew? But alas— this is January! And, for many of us, clear heat in sunshine doesn’t correlate too well with the winter chill outside. But remember, friend: even though the picture is seasonal, God’s presence is perennial.
So today, when you sit by that wood-burning stove or gather round a fire-pit or perhaps even enjoy a little warmth in the afternoon sun, feel in that warmth the favor of God, and sense in that light the Lord of Heaven looking down on you with love.