Jasmine Roberts—5 min read—Client resource
Maybe you can guess where this song is from–,
See, that will all make sense when I am older
So there’s no need to be terrified or tense
I’ll just dream about a time
When I’m in my age of prime
‘Cause when you’re older
Absolutely everything makes sense
This is fine.
Have you figured it out? In the movie Frozen 2, Olaf, an adorable snowman, is in the middle of an enchanted wood. In his wandering, he encounters a strange purple fire, mysterious weather formations, and creepy eyes in the dark. Interspersed with some screams of terror, he sings about how everything will make sense when he is grown up–how everything will be easier. It’s hard NOT to laugh when you listen to this song. The irony of this is that it is designed to make the listener chuckle. Why?
Because all adults watching know that life gets more complicated–not less– in time.
There are so many things to be uncertain about. Relationships with friends, spouses, family– as you change and shift, so do they. Maybe a health diagnosis has sent your life spinning wildly out of orbit. Even current events in the US make one realize just how much our world is tied to things outside our control. And all the pertinent, pressing questions can only be answered with an “I don’t know” and a frustrated shrug.
I’ll show my cards…I absolutely despise uncertainty! It would be so much easier if there were less “gray” in life, and more “black n’ white”. It would be so much more convenient and better if life weren’t full of unexpected, anxiety-inducing situations. Right? Right?!
Let’s take a moment to see what God’s word says:
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
Psalm 139:7-12
This passage tells me two really important things. First, you can’t escape from God’s presence. He is as high as the heavens, as deep as the farthest ocean trench, and beyond stretches of this tiny universe. Even more so, wherever I go, it is his hand that shall “guide me” & “hold me fast”. Second, God has better eyesight than I. The psalmist isn’t talking about literal eyesight here. When I believe that a situation, a person, a place, an emotion–transcends me– I am also tempted to believe that God can’t see through it either. But praise to God, he CAN see through it. “The night is as bright as the day”. Our limitations and weaknesses are not the stopping point for Him.
Imagine, for a second, that you are trapped in an interconnected, complex labyrinth. The sky above you is pitch black, and the walls are indiscernible from it. You wander in endless circles. You need to get out, but how? For most of us, we might panic, desperate for anything that might help. Or, maybe the thought of this labyrinthine maze would bring on despair.
When I am faced with the uncertain darkness, it is so easy to rely on my eyesight to navigate. It is so easy to forget God in favor of false strength. I assume that if I try hard enough or long enough, I will find a way out. I assume that I can figure out the “right” answer, and the suffering will end. I forget that I am not meant to know all, see all, understand all. I forget that to God, this darkness & uncertainty is as clear as day.
I wonder if our efforts to see can sometimes blind us from recognizing who is walking beside us.
4 Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
They comfort me.
Psalm 23:4
In the end, God is asking us to trust him in the places where we feel the most unsteady— not because he wants us to perish– but truly because it is in the darkness where we can see his Light shine the brightest.
Works Cited