Jesus the Divine Prism

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1.17)

Too often with age comes cynicism. Decades of experience seem to prove that day is followed by night, pain is inevitable and heartbroken idealism leads to pessimism. Those who hope the most, dream the deepest and care with their whole souls are often the ones devastated by human systems and the shadowy manipulations of others. From the diving board of youthful idealism they are cruelly pushed down into the deep-end of cynicism.

No one is exempt for the injuries of this world. Trials and temptations come for all men, women and children. With knowledge of how things could be comes sadness. With past pain comes the propensity to forecast it into future trauma. And in an effort of intense self-protection, we build a barbed wire fence of cynicism around our hearts. We go stumbling along in our desire to stay steadfast before the Lord, always on the look out for the next variation on the old pains.

May this be where we meet Jesus today! Not on the happy hills of naive inexperience but in the twisted and dark caverns of our growing cynicism. James reminds us that every good and perfect gift comes from God, the Father of lights. The creator of the sun and the stars. The designer of the moon and its reflective spin around the globe. No matter how dark and shadowy the world becomes, as men build corrupt systems and people oppress one another, their is no darkness in our Father.

Jesus is our divine prism, the light from the Father is made visible to us through Jesus. The Father’s light is not changed, not darkened or hidden. In Jesus, the light of the Father is revealed in living color. Jesus reveals God’s invisible and everlasting love wherever we are today. Jesus calls us to believe with expectancy for the rushing wind of His Spirit. Jesus our divine prism, offers us hope for our cynicism, wisdom in the midst enigmatic times and joyous light in the dark night of the soul.

Jesus, let me see the good things and every perfect gift raining into my life from the Father with new eyes. Let me rejoice, surrendering my ashes for His beauty, my darkness for His light.

Jesus the Wisdom Giver

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (James 1.5)

One minute life is rolling along like a car on the highway between our past and our destination when all of a sudden a tire blows or the engine starts to tremble. In a moment we feel like we’re swimming on dry land. A difficult truth we struggle with is that a life in motion is filled with trials and tribulations. Trials can be debilitating, leaving us cold and searching for meaning. Calamity can leave us seasick and spinning without answers.

James saw the early Church suffering under the disorienting forces of diverse trials. They felt like travelers surrounded by thieves on every side. These incomprehensible experiences left them bruised, struggling to make sense of their faith. These trials revealed a lack in their lives they didn’t know was there. Interwoven threads of insecurity, confusion and powerlessness sprang out one single source, the lack of divine wisdom. Our brothers and sisters in the early Church discovered their lack of wisdom could not be filled in with human answers.

James knew this lack personally. He was no stranger to our shared human experience. He once lacked wisdom and couldn’t make sense of life. When James turned His heart toward the Father through Jesus Christ he experienced the generosity of God. The Lord is not stingy with His revelation. He is not a loanshark preying on the poverty of the disenfranchised. Through Jesus, we find a free-handed Father who gives wisdom generously.

Jesus, lead me before the Father. I am asking, in faith, for wisdom to understand the trials surrounding me and learn to count in all joy as I draw near to you.