I Samuel 13:8-10
“He waited seven days, the time set by Samuel. Samuel failed to show up at Gilgal, and the soldiers were slipping away, right and left. So Saul took charge: ‘Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings!’ He went ahead and sacrificed the burnt offering. No sooner had he done it than Samuel showed up! Saul greeted him.”
“Saul waited there seven days for Samuel, as Samuel had instructed him earlier, but Samuel still didn’t come. Saul realized that his troops were rapidly slipping away. So he demanded, ‘Bring me the burnt offerings and the peace offerings!’ And Saul sacrificed the burnt offering himself. Just as Saul was finishing with the burnt offering, Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet and welcome him.”
Waiting upon God requires mental gristle. Samuel was God’s representative to Israel. If he said to, “Wait,” then God said to, “Wait.” But God is unseen, as was Samuel. The unseen does not seem so important when faced with the catastrophe Saul saw happening minute by minute. Those with a worldly perspective would say, “Who could blame him?” But those who walk by faith are called to set their sights on the unseen. This is not disengagement. It is choosing to trust God, wait upon his direction, while engaging the temporal with all our strength as best we can. Usually this happens in a jumbled sort of way.
Trusting God is like wearing a girdle while our exterior clothing encounters the world. The foundational effect of the girdle entirely changes how our clothing looks and works on our body. The girdle can seem a comfortable restraining of our body’s natural inclination. If hot or swollen, it can be agony to wear. But that is just when it is needed most.
Physicists once touted the atom as the smallest building block of nature. Now, those specializing in subatomic particles find their search for the ultimate smallest of these frustrated. Once one is identified another begins to emerge. It turns out this solid sure world we live in is made of nothing more than bits of energy. Saul’s seen world was made of the unseen after all.
Lord, I can’t wait to ‘see’ the unseen, you in your glory, loved ones gone before, to be wrapped in the unseen embrace of Jesus. Death is a grand adventure to me. Grace me to share this with others, to be a person of light and hope in this world.