The Dawn
I love this picture of a fiery Maui dawn. Admittedly, it's not a great picture but I still love it because...well, because I took it...and also because I have always loved the dawn. I love the early morning light, and the new life it promises...in fact, some of my earliest and happiest memories are simply of the dawn...stepping out on the front porch of the family home to be greeted by the brilliant gold of the morning sun – on the one hand filtering through the green leafs of the mulberry tree while on the other and it was reflecting off a yard full of dandelions! I could sense the energy! All of creation seemed to be gearing up for a new day. I think that was the key, "new"…dawn always meant new…almost like it held a promise.
There is, in fact, no promise like the promise of the dawn. With each new dawn there’s the possibility of new life…and life renewed. At dawn every form of beauty comes back from the darkness, stirring not only the senses, but the imagination as well. On the other hand, without the dawn there could be no life – no promise – no new day, no surprises, no opportunities, and no time to worship the One who created it.
Not that He's dependent on the dawn, but the dawn is the daily renewal of His faithfulness. Jeremiah expressed it well under the worst of circumstances. Even having experienced the destruction of his homeland, he still saw the faithfulness of the Lord renewed in each new day. Why? Because he knew God had designed the coming of the light to be the symbol of His faithfulness, especially for the doubter. The Lord had told him (33:20–21), “If you can break My covenant for the day, and My covenant for the night, so the day and night will not be at their appointed times, then [maybe, just maybe] My covenant may also be broken with David, My servant, that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne.” Israel had been doubting the covenants God had made with Abraham and David. They needn’t have worried. The eternal indissolubility of the divine covenant with nature had long ago set the standard for measuring God’s faithfulness…and the symbol for that faithfulness is the returning of the dawn, every morning, precisely on time!
The dawn – it's a promise, a comfort, and a guarantee that God is still there, just like we are. I love the dawn. It fascinates me to watch the first soft glow advance courageously against the huge blackness to deliver a new day – softly, gently, and precisely according to the Word of the Lord. Oh, and, by the way, there’s no need to run out and check the dawn every day just to see if God is still faithful. It’ll be there because He is faithful…so it’s okay to sleep in.
Revelation
“The darkest hour is just before the dawn.” I don’t know who said that, but if you get up early enough you’ll see it's true. The predawn blackness can be intense…and who knows what it’s concealing? But there’s an anomaly here. Within that blackness there is encased the morning star, the “priest star” that announces the imminence of the life–giving sun just as a priest announces the imminence of the life–giving God…and this is a trait God shares with the dawn…they both bring illumination.
Ah, yes. Illumination. As I recall it, I was born needing a lot of that (which is, I think, why I don’t actually recall it). At any rate, being born that way – kind of empty upstairs – was a humble state of affairs...but it gave me options. As I slowly matured into a godless world that seemed eager to infuse me with lies, I also found myself standing in the penetrating light of the Dawn, and in that light I didn’t seem to find any good excuses for making bad choices. All truth, I found, is a revelation. It was all there – not quite as noisy as the barking of the lies – but there just the same, waiting to be “found”...to bring a dawning of enlightenment to my grey soul.
The Person
God is neither mean nor sadistic. Before time, in loving foresight He imagined the happiness He could provide us if only we existed...so in love He created the dawn – and us – and the whole divine estate, a universe vast beyond imagination. It's almost like once He got started He got carried away with the idea! ...but He never lost track of the original thought so, remarkably, He still pays attention to us, infinitesimal though we are – less than bugs in a forest, less than molecules in a galaxy, but still large in His site.
And He truly loves us. When our original parents severed their relationship with Him, deciding they had a better idea, how did He respond? Did He casually brush them aside like bothersome insects? Or smash them like cracked pottery? No, He immediately rushed to their side with an offer reconciliation. When the nations of the earth, Jew and gentile alike, shouted "Crucify Him," did He retaliate with rage? Did He call for legions of angels to deliver Him? No, He opened His loving arms wider than ever and offered us membership in His own royal family such that those who would believe might actually share in His own inheritance forever! No, this God...this loving God who is willing to subordinate Himself to our needs and to suffer on our behalf...this God is neither mean nor sadistic in the least.
But He is dangerous. He's dangerous because He cannot compromise His character, and He can't relinquish His responsibilities. This is His creation. To insist upon rejecting this loving Creator, and the Redeemer He has so kindly provided, is to decline the inheritance He has offered us in His estate – and such a refusal necessarily mandates our permanent removal. In this sense God is very dangerous. A person should have better sense, or at the very least, an excellent alternative plan before before declining the offer.
and the Truth
God is the God of Truth, not because He designates what will or will not be truth, but because He endorses all that is true and abhors all that is not. That's why truth is also dangerous, because it inevitably leads to God. Truth is the faithful servant of the truth seeker and the great enemy of the liar. In the western mind the search for truth is the search for cause because to the extent we understand causal relationships we can manipulate our environment to serve us more beneficially. Thus truth is of great value. Of course, we can manipulate the lie, too, but that only works on us, not the environment, because only the mind can believe the lie. The divine estate (the creation) on the other hand, is completely impervious to the lie. No matter what we do, it will only respond in truth. Thus the environment is a great teacher of truth – and since it can only teach one truth, again, inquiry will always lead to the One True God.