Our life is a mist. This is the wisdom of Solomon. This potent little phrase reveals a deafening reality that our life is not as tenured as we thought it was. In comparison to the greatness of the universe and the length of the eternity, the whole of our lives is a small, brief appearance.
And yet, God chooses to enter into our timeline. He chooses to inject Himself into the mist of our lives. And so the picture is this, if we pay attention and look at the mist of our lives, we will see the glory of God in the mist.
As a visual person, I like to picture little specs of gold in my mist, to represent God's presence. And just like the hand of God, you usually have to be looking for the gold to see it. In my glorious mist, it takes the right angle of sunlight to see the gold sparkle. Why is this visual so important? It represents our reality. We see God, who is infinitely valuable, entering into something that by comparison is so less valuable. We see God, who is infinite in time, entering into something extremely temporary. And true to our reality, if we are to see God in the mist, we must look for Him, intently. His place in our lives is often not obvious. It's only by the Son that we see the work of the Father in our lives. What an amazing picture of the eternal God entering into the temporary, the fragile, the common, the earthly story... the mist.
The beauty of God in our mist is simple, but is it a waste? It would be easy to see how it would be. The Infinite, the Holy, the Divine, infused into something fleeting and so unnecessary to the order of the universe. But it's not wasted. It's not wasted! Imagine with me the entire effect. The greatness of God is seen in His choice to be in our story and even more so in humanity’s story. If we could zoom out and see the timeline of history, if we could see the constant expressions of Solomon's wisdom: the explosions of insignificant mists represented by the millions who gone before us. Our collective existence must look like one long, ongoing cloud, constantly changing. Here is where we see the awe of God's presence. Imagine the injected glory of God in each mist of each person. Imagine the volume of the glory of God being injected into the history of our story. Imagine the reflection His glory would create. Once again, by the light of God we are able to see how He has been present in us as a people. It’s by His grace that are eyes are opened to the glory of God not just around us, but in us! And this scope of history takes shape in our mist and in the continuous timeline of humanity. May we be aware that our life finds its meaning not by what we do, earn, or achieve, but by the glory injected... infused into our mist by the grace of God.