Forever a Foreigner

What is a moment? 

A moment is the space 
between one breath and the next,
the pause
when sounds and silence are taken together.
Listen.
Time hangs 
suspended,
dust in a sunbeam.
The world is still;
thoughts quiet.
Then-
gone.

Look away from the screen. 
Pause.
Have a moment.

***

That moment was a gift from the hand of God. 

And if that moment was a gift from God, then so is the next, and the next, until 
the sum of my moments strung together, 
is my life. 
Have I forgotten? 

"For everything there is a season, 
and a time for every matter under heaven." 
If that were all
it would only be Fate. 
But: 
"He has made everything beautiful in its time." 

God is the great Ordainer
of History, 
of Current Events, 
of that moment. 
Did I forget? 
God is not a mere mortal, 
that he should be surprised by anything. 
He knows it all beforehand. 
And he does not just know, 
but he himself sets it in its proper season. 
"God has done it, 
so that people fear before him." 

Change derails 
expectations.
Tragedies multiply.
Confusion reigns, and
the world is loud
with interpretations.
Did I look so long upon my own surprised, disappointed, and fearful reflection
that I looked to my God with those man-made lights still in my eyes? 

"I am the LORD, and there is no other,
    besides me there is no God;
    I equip you, though you do not know me,
that people may know, from the rising of the sun
    and from the west, that there is none besides me;
    I am the LORD, and there is no other.
I form light and create darkness;
    I make well-being and create calamity;
    I am the LORD, who does all these things.

“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
    a pot among earthen pots!
Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
    or ‘Your work has no handles’?
Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’
    or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”

Thus says the LORD,
    the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:
“Ask me of things to come;
    will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?"

"He has made everything beautiful in its time." 
Beautiful: 
right, fitting, 
appropriate, suitable, or 
good.

God is not only the great Ordainer, 
he is this God.
Righteous.
Just.
Savior.

"There is no other god besides me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
    there is none besides me...
By myself I have sworn;
    from my mouth has gone out in righteousness
    a word that shall not return:
‘To me every knee shall bow,
    every tongue shall swear allegiance.’

“Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me,
    are righteousness and strength."
 
His purpose is good. 
His timing is perfect. 
His knowledge and understanding is complete. 

The moments of my life are given from a God such as this.
How could I have forgotten? 

A moment is the space 
between one breath and the next,
the pause
when sounds and silence are taken together.
Listen.
Time hangs 
suspended,
dust in a sunbeam.
The world is still;
thoughts quiet.
Then-
gone.

Look away from the screen.
Pause. 
Have a moment
from his hand, 
from the God who has made everything beautiful in its time.


- Scripture taken from Ecclesiastes 3 and Isaiah 45