In the dawning, long before the light of day melted the darkness into morning, the stillness was thick. The song birds were absent. It was too early for even stirring. The darkness was changing ever so slightly. Staring intently, for long minutes into the blackness, reveals only minute changes. Eventually there were thin threads of dark blue ribbons in the sky above. Each moment they appeared to grow fatter and lighter. Other darker thicker ribbons separated them from the pitch black which had enveloped all that could be seen before the night. The stars had faded behind the overcast skies. Moment by moment the lighter ribbons seemed to be thinner but not overwhelmed be the darker ones. Slowly the light was coming. Not brighter but stronger. Then it happened. There, just above that light ribbon of gray, a hint of the other color. Then the hue grew, maybe pink, maybe yellow. Ever so slightly but it was true, the dark was ebbing. It was promised.
The trees begin to be revealed. Their nakedness had been hidden from the light. No thick green canopy adorns their massive branches. No buds seeking to be loosed, no blossoms eagerly greeting the growing light. The longer hours of nightly darkness from this season had robbed them of the richness they required. There is no teeming new life sounding out from their gnarled limbs; just the lonely unencumbered branches jutting in every direction.
Silent empty nests declare from the crooks and forks they rested upon that once life had been there. The circle of life continues. Its incessant activity had not stopped but had moved in its continuing arch of fulfillment. The new had come, the aged had passed, light had shined, the dark had covered and the cycle would continue. It would not fail. It was promised.
It was a new thing, but it had happened before. Never had it been exactly like this. Just as each fallen snowflake from yesterday was different, so the dawning was not as any had ever been. The promise it carried was the same. Even when the dark had begun to overcome and envelope the struggles and triumphs of the day before, it was known. There had been a night before that day and the dawn had ended it. The day before had been the same, and the one before that. As long as memory could recall, it had happened so. It was coming and would not, could not, be denied. It was the promised sign.
It was always going to come. It could not, would not, ever fail. Each long night had always brought forth the new dawn. Each dark time of terror, each time of joy cloaked from the light, each restful intermission had yielded to new light. Each new day was a time of restoration of the light. The night was done the day had dawned. It was promised.
After what seems to be a long time, there are only wisps of darker gray scattered over the bluing sky. It was a lighter joyful openness spanning from the horizon in every direction. Yet there was an emptiness. It was not the final dawn. It was not the ultimate fulfillment of the promise. It was not the Day Star arising. Once again it declared the oft repeated promise, “I will come again”. To those who had known the glory rising within their heart, it was a moment of praise, adoration and affirmation of the love which was their inheritance. It was the continuing reminder that He would come again. It is His promise that He is present in this dawn and one day they will be present with Him. Some, day by day, as their time of waiting is enveloped in the gift of death without sting or sorrow. Some waiting for His appearing. It was promised.
Just as the sun does not fail to extinguish the dark, even so He will not fail to come as He has promised. The Angels asked “Why do you stand gazing up into heaven?” He is coming just as He promised. He is coming to bring liberty. He is coming as surely as the dawn is coming, as surely as the sun will extinguish the darkness. He is coming because He promised. He is coming because He loves us. He is coming to judge the living and the dead. He rewards those who have trusted in Him for their eternal souls. He pours out His wrath upon those who reject His truth and believe the lie. All will stand before Him. It is promised.
He will come to receive those who are His own. Jesus will bring the wrath of His judgment upon all the ungodly who commit their lawless ungodly selfishness. They are worthy of condemnation, those who reject Him as God and creator, those who would desire to ascend to His throne and be as the most high God.
In the Garden of Eden it was promised that He would crush that head of deception with an overwhelming bruise. In the trials of Job it was promised that there could be no evil affliction beyond what God allows for His glory.
On the cross of Calvary it was promised that sin was finished. There remained no more provision for evil to triumph. He is the promise and the fulfillment.
In the book of life is written the name of every holy child of God who has bowed their heart in surrender and obedience. In the revelation given to John, the end of night is shown. The brightness of day without shadow, without end, is revealed. It is His promise to you. You will either live with Him in the brilliance of that eternal glorious day or suffer His wrath in eternal darkness and torment for your rejection of His promise.
It was promised. It is promised.