Grasshoppers, Elections, and One Very Special Email

A week ago today I could not shake the feeling that November 6, 2012 was a day that my children’s children would look back on and say, “That day was the beginning of the real end of America.”

 

From my perspective in the spiritually dark Washington state, things could not get any worse after this year's presidential election.  Voters here legalized recreational marijuana, legalized homosexual marriage, elected a slate of anti-God leaders, and voted to re-elect the most liberal president of all time.  It would be a true statement to say that I was depressed after voting in my second presidential election. 

 

And then I thought to flip back in my journal four years ago to the night of my first presidential election, and what I read from my eighteen-year old’s heart brought tears to my eyes.  I share the gist of it with you here with the hope that it will encourage your heart:

 

Someday every knee will bow to Christ and every stammering tongue will confess His Lordship.  I, though I so often resist my Lord, will bow.  Barack Obama will bow.  The vilest murderer on death row will bow. 

Isaiah 40:21-23 and 25 tell the story:

“Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?  It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.  He brings the princes to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth useless….‘To whom then will you liken Me, Or to whom shall I be equal?’ says the Holy One.”

 

This election then is simply another step in grasshopper-man’s millenia-long plod of sin.  And God, He knows. 

 

Not a baby can be murdered without God’s knowledge.  I weep as I write that.  Yet does not God sob before He welcomes a precious little one to His safe arms?  Does not God care more than I ever could?

Yes.

 

Then I rest, not in the wisdom of the American people, but in the omniscience of God.

I rest, not in the power of my vote, but in the omnipotence of God.

I rest, not in the shortness of Obama’s term, but in the infinity of God.

I rest, not in vindictiveness towards the president-elect, but in the mercy of God.

 

I find my haven next to that unwanted baby who now feels the warmth of God’s unconditional love.  I put my hands into the palms of God’s; I place my feet on His.

I cry, “I am as big a sinner as Barack Obama.  I do not know Your plan, but if You would use him to judge my nation, I beg that You would use me to bless it.”

–—

I went to sleep last Tuesday night with this prayer on my lips, and later on Wednesday morning was greeted with this email from my father to his family:

 

“As I was walking into my office this morning, I was blinded by a ray of sunlight breaking through the cloud-filled sky. 

  

‘Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. {Lamentations 3:22-23}’

"As I turned my gaze to the sky, there in the western horizon was a beautiful brilliant rainbow, radiating in vivid color.  My thoughts turned to the promises of Genesis 9:16 and Isaiah 59:19:

 

‘So shall they fear The name of the Lord from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. {Isaiah 59:19}’”

Yes, the first Tuesday in November was a dark day.  But not for Christ-followers. 

Photo Credit: h.koppdelaney

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.