The other day I was running. It was a nice morning to run b/c it was cool, quiet, and breezy. There was a little bit of an overcast in the sky but I didn't pay much attention to it b/c that too made it a perfect morning to run.
But as I was about 2 miles away from finishing it started to rain. And my perfect morning began to become not so perfect. Why did it have to rain? Why couldn't it wait until I was done. I mean, 2 miles out....come on!
So as the rain was coming down, I began to pick up my pace so I wouldn't get soaked. There is nothing worse than running w/ wet shoes and socks. So here I am going as fast as I can when I begin to round a corner, which dips down into a valley.
And as I begin to go down into this valley, the rain stops and the sun comes out. I look around in the sky and see overcast everywhere except in this valley. But if that isn't amazing enough, right in the middle of the valley is the brightest and most radiant rainbow I've ever seen.
I mean it was beautiful and perfect in every single way. It was like God was there to remind me that he is w/ us in our valleys.
Now in the Bible, the rainbow was God's promise to Noah that he wouldn't destroy the world again (Gen. 9:13). And so the rainbow is really a symbol of the fact that God keeps his promises and gives us hope.
But the irony is that when we are in our "valleys" we tend to think that this is when God is the most distant from us. Its in the valleys of sin, and guilt, and hurt, frustration, disappointment, and shame that we feel God has left us. Its the times when we don't want to get out of bed, feel unloved, and have no sense of purpose that we feel like God has turned his back on us.
Perhaps we feel like this b/c we think that's what God did to Jesus on the cross. In Matt 27:46, Jesus cries out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And its here that we have been taught that b/c Jesus took on the sins of the world and was so dirty and disgusting w/ this sin, that God turned his back on Jesus.
But there is something else going here....perhaps a different point of view. You see when Jesus cries out to God, he is quoting Psalm 22. Now its true that the Psalm starts out w/ David crying out to God to rescue him and save him. And just like Jesus was hanging on the cross in pain and agony, David is crying out in his pain in agony.
But in verse 24, the tone changes from hopelessness to hopefullenss. David writes,
"For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help."
When Jesus is hanging on the cross, he is being mocked and people are yelling out, "He trusts in God, let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God" (Matt. 27:43). But what Jesus is doing here is something that is very smart and very intentional b/c Jesus was responding to these mockers w/ this Psalm. Jesus knew that they would know Psalm 22 and he knew that it starts out w/ a cry for help but that it ends w/ a victorious rescue from God. And so Jesus knowing this, isn't crying out to a God who has left him but he is crying out and putting his hope and trust in a God who is right there beside him. Who, "has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help" and will deliver him (vs. 24).
Jesus knew to cry out to the God who knows what valleys are. Who knows our pain and hurt. "Who is able to sympathize w/ our weaknesses and has been tempted in everyway...." (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus is proving to us that God did not turn his back on him or "forsake" him. No, Jesus is telling us that when we are in our most painful times. When we are dirty and disgusting w/ sin. When we feel shame and guilt. When we are in our valleys. Jesus is telling us that this is the time when God is closest to us. Jesus is telling us to trust in his Father, our God, who is the rainbow in the valley.
So may we be reminded that in our deepest times of distress and hopelessness, we can find hope in our God who is always w/ us, won't ever leave us, and will always love us. B/c God is our rainbow in our valleys.
BW
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