THE ENVELOPING DARKNESS
In the Summer of 2018, the kids and I visited New Zealand with our friends, the Scherer’s. One of the most exciting places on our agenda was the Cavern House, which is home to the amazing glowworm. If you don’t know what a glowworm is, go look it up. I won’t have time in this blog….unless y’all want it to turn into a book….to explain them to you, but, trust me, they are amazing.
So, we boarded a boat, and set sail for the glowworm caves. Honestly, I had no idea what to expect. I was just excited about this opportunity to see something I had never seen before and experience something rare. Nature amazes me because it is God’s way of showing us just how incredible He is.
The scenery was picturesque. The tour guides prepared us as well as they could for what we were about to experience. They explained the glowworm and how it lives. They told us what to do when we were in the cave and how to remain safe while we were below ground. They took every precaution to make sure we were ready.
As we started to leave for our tour, they told us that our boat was full and they needed 2 volunteers to separate and go with another group. Caleb and Robin looked at me and asked if I would be ok if I took all the kids/young adults with me and they would volunteer to go with the other group. I was totally fine with this. So, they left us and we started our walk down to the caves without them.
We were led by an experienced tour guide, who knew exactly where we were going and what was ahead of us, because he had been down this path many times before us.
Upon entering the cave, you could hear the loud sound of rushing water and water falls. The area was dark, but there was electric lighting where we were. The tour guide showed us important features and helped us understand the surroundings. We saw our first glowworm up close and in a small space. But, with all the lighting in the cave, we couldn’t see how the worm, itself, glowed in the dark. We had to go further into the darkness in order to see the light.
So, we boarded a gondola. There was one bench running down the middle of the small boat. Tourists sat back to back along the bench, facing outward so they could see. Our tour guide was at the front of the boat, guiding us. Thankfully, I also noticed that the boats were attached to a system of ropes, so they couldn’t stray off the path.
We pushed off. As we sailed along, I could still see a fair amount of light from the dock. Up ahead was darkness, and I was beginning to see the glowworms. As I looked up to the ceiling of the cave, the glowworms were everywhere…their little white lights shining at us. We moved further and further into the darkness, and the tour guide asked that everyone in the boat remain completely silent. It got more and more black until I literally could not see my hand in front of my face.
The silence was deafening. I could hear my own heartbeat. The darkness was enveloping. I felt like it was hard to breath. I have never felt anything physically like this before. Mia and Ben (the youngest of these people for whom I was responsible) were pressed up against me as tightly as they could, each holding one of my hands. Emma and Grace were sitting with their backs to me and I felt both of them lean back closer to me. Hanna and Sam were further away and I whispered as quietly as possible, “Everyone touch me. Just touch me so I can feel that you are still here.”
I needed to know they were there because, y’all, I literally felt blind. I would blink my eyes and there was no change. Whether they were closed or open, it didn’t matter. The blackness was the same. I was terrified for a minute. Something could have come up out of that water and we never would have seen it coming. The darkness felt like a person, pressed up against me and breathing in my face. I could literally feel the darkness pressing on me.
But……when I looked up…..the ceiling was covered in these tiny white lights that looked like a million stars above us. Because of the darkness, we were able to see this beautiful light that we never could have seen any other way. We had to go into the cave, where there was no other light, to see the glowworm. And, there, tucked away in this cave deep in the mountains of New Zealand, was a beautiful creation that God made.
If I wouldn’t have pressed through the darkness, I never could have seen it.
I would have had to hear others tell stories about it, while never experiencing it for myself.
And, as I looked up and gazed upon this really amazing creation, I was gently reminded that our tour guide had been here probably thousands of times before. He knew exactly where he was. Our boat was attached to the ropes and he was in full control. He wasn’t scared. He wasn’t surprised. He wasn’t alarmed. When I was grasping for the things I loved most to make sure they were still there with me, he was calmly guiding our boat back to safety.
And, we made it. We made it out of the dark and into the light.
Look at our faces just after we came out. We were so excited about what we had experienced. Now that we could talk again, we couldn’t wait to tell each other all about how we felt down in that darkness. We all experienced it together, but we still told our own version of the story multiple times. We were amazed. We all were.
It was an experience I will never forget. And, the best part…..we were reunited with Robin and Caleb. I remember watching them walk out and all of us rushing over to hug them and share stories. We were all laughing and so excited to talk about how it all felt.
Minutes later, we were standing in a beautiful valley. The kids were running and laughing and playing. We were all smiling and taking in God’s beautiful creation. I was so thankful for all that He had shown me that day. We were together. We were safe. We were changed because of something amazing we had encountered together. We had a knowledge that we didn’t have before this day. Our eyes had seen something unique and wonderful. We had come through the darkness and lived to tell our story.
I hope you have been able to recognize the analogy to this story.
We are all in the glowworm cave, y’all. We’re down there together. Collectively. Basically the entire world. We’re all down there together right now. We’ve pushed off from the dock and the darkness is growing darker by the day.
For some of us, the darkness is so real that we can hardly breath. It is pressing on us. We are reaching through the dark just to make sure our loved ones are still there. We are missing those who are not with us.
Some of us are scared….
Some of us are lonely….
Some of us are wondering how we got to this dark place….
Some of us are afraid that something will jump out of the darkness and take us….
Some of us are paralyzed….
But, some of us are looking up!
Looking up to see the hand of God.
Looking up to see the reason God led us here in the first place.
To show His glory!
We are surrounded by darkness, fear and loneliness like we’ve never felt before, but if we look up, we can see the glory of God.
And, as we place our eyes on the only good thing in this moment – Jesus – we will gently be reminded that we have a Holy Spirit who is guiding our boat. We are tied to the ropes that God placed in this cave and He is guiding us through the darkness. He has been here before. He saw this coming. He prepared us to enter this cave, and He will get us through it.
He is not surprised.
He is not scared.
He is not lonely.
He is right where He wants to be. In the boat with us. Leading us. Helping us. Quietly speaking to us so we can hear Him through the darkness. And, He knows how to get us back to the light.
Psalm 31: 7 – 8 says,
“I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love,
because you have seen my affliction;
you have known the distress of my soul,
and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy;
you have set my feet in a broad place.”
He is going to bring us out of this. We will be reunited with our friends. He will lead us to that valley and our feet will be in a broad place. A big, wide open, beautiful space where there is plenty of room to run and play and be safe. There will be sunlight, blue skies, clouds and mountains in the view. We are going to be smiling and telling the stories of all that God did while we were down there in our cave.
I promise. He promises.
If you will remain faithful and trust the Lord, He will bring us out. And, we will have such a powerful story to tell. We will be able to say that we have seen something amazing. We will understand God more and we will be different. His glory will be seen in the earth.
The glowworms were worth the darkness.
I’m praying that we can all say that Jesus was worth it when this cave experience ends.
I love you.
Kristy
March 25, 2020
Yesterday was the first day that me and the kids were all home in quarantine. I worked through the morning, and then Grace, Ben, Ellie (our family dog) and I decided to go out for some fresh air. Grace and I wanted to jog, while Ben wanted to fish.
Now, stay with me. There is a point to this story!
The four of us left the house at the same time. All with the same mission – to get out of the house for a little while.
Grace and I shared a set of air pods so we could be listening to the same music. She has an amazing worship playlist, which got both of us ready to run. We left the driveway in perfect unison. Walking at the same pace to warm up, listening to the same music, breathing practically at the same pace.
As we started jogging, Grace was keeping a faster pace than me. I was having to work to keep up with her, but it was tiring me too fast, so I slowed back to my normal pace and let her get ahead just a little. (Please keep in mind that I am 23 years older than her!)
Then, when we were both ready to stop jogging and walk for a minute, I quickly passed her with my faster walking pace. A few times I tried to encourage her to walk a little faster so we could remain side by side, but she didn’t want to. The more I urged her, the more frustrated she got, so I just walked ahead of her slightly.
Then we would jog again and she would pass me. There were times when I slowed my walking pace a little so we could walk side by side and have conversation. I love talking to her!
After a while, we came around a corner and I could see Ben in the distance. Standing at the bank of the lake…Ellie at his side…fishing. Loving every minute of it. Just as we walked up, he hooked a 1.5 lb fish. He was so excited!
As we sat down to watch him for minute, the Lord gently spoke to me about His church during these momentous days we are living in right now. We all have a common goal – to see God receive His glory. But, it looks different in all of us. We are each called to a different purpose and we have to know what God has asked us to do.
Ben wasn’t standing at that lake thinking to himself, “I wonder if I should be running with Mom and Grace.” He wasn’t afraid that what we were doing was better. He was perfectly content to do what he felt was right in that moment.
And shame on me or Grace if we had judged Ben for not running with us. What if we had approached him at the lake and said, “What are you doing wasting your time here? You should have been exercising with us.” How dare we. In fact, for me, it was quite the opposite. When I turned the corner and saw him there…happy as he could be…I was proud of him. I was happy for him. He was enjoying himself and excited to tell us about what had happened while we were gone.
When Grace and I were jogging, we let one another run and walk at different paces when needed. There were times we were side by side and in perfect unison. There were also times that we were a few steps apart. But, it was fine. We both accomplished our goal and we made it home at the same time.
Church, People of God, Christians, let us do this for one another in this time. Let us love one another and trust each other to live our faith the way God has called us to live it.
If you are quarantined in your home because you believe that is what God has told you to do – do it with faith. Tuck yourself away with Him and let Him teach you and speak to you during this time.
If you feel God has told you to go out into the world under the guidelines set forth by our officials – to help others, to go to your church, to work – do it with faith. Let Him use you in a great way during this time.
Let’s not spend our time judging one another. Let’s stand together in unity and love.
Very early in this pandemic, God pointed me to this verse:
Philippians 1:27-28, “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God.”
This is my prayer for my church, the church in our nation, and the worldwide church. That God would return and find us standing together in one spirit, striving side by side. In UNITY. I long to see us maintain unity. How can we defeat our enemy if we are fighting ourselves?
I love this part….NOT FRIGHTENED IN ANYTHING BY YOUR OPPONENTS! When we stand together, we don’t have to be afraid of our enemy. Our unity is a clear sign to the enemy of his destruction. Satan wants to destroy the church during this time. Let’s pray for the opposite. That we would band together in unity and become a sure sign of his destruction. I love that thought!
My Pastor recently said this, “There is one thing of which we can be certain. There is no possible way that an event of global proportions like this could occur without God and the devil being intimately involved.” Don’t you know that this is true? This is a spiritual event. Yes. It’s a physical sickness. But the proportion to which it has affected the globe signifies that it there are spiritual implications.
If this is true….if you believe that the devil is real and that he is fighting against the church of God…
Then, let’s stand together, without fear, and become a clear sign to him of his destruction! He is already defeated. We have read the end of the story, church. It is already written! God has given us His Word so that we will be able to discern these events and understand the truth of what is happening. This is a call to prepare ourselves to see Him. He is our salvation. He is our answer.
Can we honor Him, and demonstrate our love for Him, but loving one another? By serving one another?
Let’s encourage each other and cheer each other on. I love you! I am praying for you. Whether you are fishing, running or walking, I am praying for God to fill you with purpose, faith, confidence and hope!
Please pray for the church in the world, y’all. The hope of glory lives in us. Let the world see hope in you!
Kristy Furlow