"How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?"
— Psalm 13:1
Sometimes God feels distant.
He's not.
The Hebrew name Emmanuel means "God is with us."
Not just back then. But now.
Nevertheless, the fog may settle in for a season.
If you're familiar with fog, you know it typically forms in the morning.
An apt spiritual metaphor isn't it?
How often do we wake in a spiritual fog? Anxious. Fearful. Hurried. Feeling alone.
This is where faith must remember what is there. What we've seen. What we know. What is true.
In the fog, belief must become, in a word, tenacious about reality.
The fog is but a mist. It will dissipate.
But it's not that what was true becomes true again, as if the fog replaced reality.
No, even in the fog, what was true, is true.
The fog simply makes it hard to see reality.
So, what is real?
The reality is, the Lord did not forget us.
Rather, he turned his face toward the cross for us.
Jesus, the eternal God in the flesh, was born, fulfilled the law, was crucified, was buried, and was raised.
Now, he reigns and will return.
In him, the believer is fully forgiven, positionally righteous, indwelt by the Holy Spriti unto new life, and is dearly treasured as an adopted child of God.
We don’t know everything.
But we do know this.
Between his first advent and second, the sovereign plan of our Father is unfolding according to his perfect providence, with the day of eternal joy in the new heavens and new earth as the end game.
What happens now is not capricious, frivolous, or meaningless.
It’s all part of a story—a tapestry woven with purpose and pain, trauma and triumph, sadness and joy.
Even the cross echoes these themes.
Eventually, and gloriously, just like Jesus rose to new life, purpose will eclipse pain, trauma will be superseded by triumph, and sadness will give way to the fullness of joy that, unlike the fog, will never dissipate.
Because the gospel is true, hope lives.
And where hope lives, the believer rests.
Because God is not distant but near.
Even in the fog.