Today’s Reading : Micah 7:1-20
I am constantly reminded of the complexities of adults and children and how to interact with our children and our adult counterparts. A couple days ago I was having a conversation with a new friend and we started to talk about our past experiences and how that has created the people who we are today. As we were having a dialogue, this new friend gave me a profound perspective into myself. You are not your child and your child will not be you.
We were talking about how we raise our kids and compared it to how we were raised. We talked about the opportunity and the ability that we have to be with our children on a daily basis and how we give them the resources and chances to give them the best opportunity to succeed.
I was recounting to this friend how my kids have me as a resource to help them with homework and to be there on a daily basis to help shepherd them through life. The friend says the children only know that which is what I have given them. So they only know : me being there to support them and to guide them. They don’t know anything different. This is their only point of reference. This made me have the realization and a redirection of myself because I had compared who I am and how I was raised. These are two completely different mutually exclusive points of view between who I am and who my children are. My children will never know how I was raised because I am raising them in a different manner.
Micah 7:1-2 Woe is me! For I have become as when the summer fruit has been gathered, as when the grapes have been gleaned: there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig that my soul desires. 2 The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind;
In Micah, Micah is telling the children of Israel a different perspective of how God is with you. Micah has had the intuition and the revelation from the Holy Spirit. Micah understands and knows the mission of God. He has no fear of what’s to come. The others don’t have that understanding. The others are trying to make it work. Micah is telling them the good news with the hope of them retaining it.
Micah 7: 7-8; 18 But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.
8 Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
when I fall, I shall rise;
when I sit in darkness,
the Lord will be a light to me.
“Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love.”
Imagine for an example, trick-or-treating with the kids. When you are trick-or-treating with your kids, the kids are comfortable and not afraid of the dark or the people or the situation of that night. In that particular moment, your younger kids feel comfortable with you knowing that you will protect them from anything that could possibly harm them in the darkness. They are resting in you knowing that you are stronger and have your best interest at heart. But without you the night is scary. The neighborhood that they know in the daytime is not like the neighborhood that I know at night. They can be confused and they could be guarded.
In the time that Micah is writing, the truth is that Israel is in the night time of their despair. They are afraid they are lonely, they are confused. But Micah is giving them life and the hope of what is potential for them. They don’t have to be in the darkness by themselves if they come to God.
There are many times in our life that we do not know where we are going or what’s the next plan. We do understand that in God we have that safety in the security of him being there with us. We have that assurance that his steadfast love is there for us.