What a day.
I write to you as our national election remains entirely up-in-the-air. Yet you and I must not despair. Although our nation’s fate seems to be hanging by a thread, our hope is in a King, who will deal with justice and truth in the end. As a poet once soulfully proclaimed:
“God is not dead, nor does he sleep
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail…” (H.W. Longfellow)
Nations rise and fall. But the Gospel ensures a future in a kingdom which will not be destroyed. The risen Redeemer heralds the news of victory: “To Him was given a dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away.” (Daniel 7:14a)
Every conscientious citizen of the USA seems to sit on pins and needles as they await the final outcome of this year’s presidential bid. Each hour (or perhaps every ten minutes!) we are prompted to refresh the voting maps. With each tenth-of-a-percent fluctuation, we feel anxiety and uncertainty burn through our nervous system. News commentators and political analysts throw bits of data back and forth as we numbly watch our glowing screens. Our minds swirl with questions that lack satisfying answers:
“What will be the outcome?”“What if _________ wins?“What then?“Who knows what’s happening right now?!”
Yet there is One who knows precisely how this election will end. Beyond this momentary crisis, He knows and has even planned all things together by the counsel of His will to the praise of His glory (Eph. 1:11-12). A bit of theology 101 helps us: The Triune God stands outside the bounds of time. He is not governed by the clock but created time itself. He knows the end from the beginning and lives eternally as the Alpha and Omega over all created order.
So who knows? God alone.
Our Father knows the ebbs and flows of this great river we call America. Yet don’t rest your hopes and dreams in the land of the free (as beautiful as it may be). For “you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession…” (1 Pet. 2:9a). Remember who you are and whose you are. Even further, take the mission by grasping how He who called you now invites you to live: “…so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light . . .” (1 Pet. 2:9b).
Want to know the final results?
I’ve read the end of the book. In the end, God wins.
Let us place all our trust in Him.
In God’s Vineyard,
Michael
Take a moment to allow this song to strengthen your faith in the sovereign Ancient of Days:
