“He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him.”
Daniel 2:22
My friend, David, lives on the edge. He’s a quadriplegic, his wife left him after the car accident, he survives on government benefits, and lives alone in a little apartment downtown. After getting up in the morning, he more or less fends for himself after his part-time attendant leaves. Despite all his struggles, David always orders the public access van on Saturday evening so that he can come to our church for Sunday services.
“Who helps you with dinner?” I asked him once. David explained that he usually powers his wheelchair over to the Pizza Hut for dinner. “The Lord always provides someone to help,” he laughed. “Sometimes it’s one of the waiters on break. Or a stranger having dinner who offers to help. I can feed myself,” he said proudly. “I just need someone to place the pizza in the curve of my hand just so. But Joni, I’ll tell you something. All this helps me to depend on the Lord. I mean…I depend on Him.”
David inspires me because he’s not afraid to live on the edge. Somehow, he finds light in the darkness and hope in the midst of helplessness. And God has revealed to him the preciousness of Isaiah 45:3, where the Lord promises, “I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places so that you may know I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.” Oh, how wealthy are the people who need God desperately; whose treasure in the darkness is a deeper knowledge of Him.
In the midst of your own darkness, there is treasure, and riches that could never be discovered in the light of ease and peace. Needing God desperately will always make you wealthy.
Lord Jesus, You left the rainbow radiance of heaven to taste darkness and death for me…and bring me home to Your Father’s house. And even now, in the worst of times and deepest of sorrows, You have become my treasure and my hope.
