What can be said of the night?

What can be said of the night is often voiced by the feelings the night calls forth.

When weeping has tarried far too long, when the joy we wish to come would rise as the sun does.

What can be said of the night when it refuses to give way to the day?

What can one say about the moon when it seems to break its covenant with the sun?

When the question “can anything good come from the midnight hour?” turns into “can anything good come from Nazareth?”

Our Holy invitation is to come and see.

Our summons into the midnight hour is just as Holy and Blessed as the goodness of the Lord we will experience in the land of plenty.

It is a Holy uprooting. It’s the type of uprooting only a loving Father can offer his daughter.

“My daughter, do not reject the discipline of the LORD, and do not loathe His rebuke; for the LORD disciplines the one He loves, as does a father the daughter in whom he delights.” (Proverbs 3:11-12)

---

Where others have exposed you to shame, the Lord seeks to uncover you to reveal you. He uncovers you because He delights in His daughter. He finds you because He delights in what you do not yet see.

The seemingly endless pruning, trial, loss, and suffering is the peeling back of an identity He did not speak over you. It is the path to life and life abundant. It is the loss of your life to find the one brimming with hope.

The testing is bringing forth the version of you that is needed to walk in the fullest measure of who He has called you to be. It is the version of you that will embody the hope to which you are called.

This isn’t death. It’s a rebirth.

So what can be said about the night?

What can be said about the night is better expressed by the one who enters into our midnight hour to put into words the feelings that only seem to come out of us as wordless groans. It is the voice of our eternal High Priest working all things together for good. Even the pains of the midnight hour.

---

Scripture to meditate on

Desolate: barren or laid waste

What the Lord says over the barren places:

“Where is your wife, Sarah?” they asked.

“There, in the tent,” he replied.

Then the LORD said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year, and your wife Sarah will have a son!”

Now, Sarah was behind him, listening at the entrance to the tent. And Abraham and Sarah were already old and well along in years; Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. So she laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

And the LORD asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Can I really bear a child when I am old?’ Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time, I will return to you—in about a year—and Sarah will have a son.”

But Sarah was afraid, so she denied it and said, “I did not laugh.”

“No,” replied the LORD, “but you did laugh.”
(Genesis 18:9-15)

What the Lord says to the places that have been laid waste:

“This is what the LORD says: In this place you say is a wasteland without man or beast, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted—inhabited by neither man nor beast—there will be heard again the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those bringing thank offerings into the house of the LORD, saying:

‘Give thanks to the LORD of Hosts,

for the LORD is good;

His loving devotion endures forever.’

For I will restore the land from captivity as in former times, says the LORD.

This is what the LORD of Hosts says: In this desolate place, without man or beast, and in all its cities, there will once more be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks. In the cities of the hill country, the foothills, and the Negev, in the land of Benjamin and the cities surrounding Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, the flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the LORD.” (Jeremiah 33:10-12)

---

Prayer

Holy Spirit, search my heart and mind. See if there is any anxious way in me. Intercede for me according to the will of God. When the weight of the midnight hour threatens to steal my strength and voice, I ask that you would pray for me when I feel too weak and when I’ve run out of things to say. Holy Spirit, only you search out the things hidden deep, even the deep things of God. Only you know the very thoughts of God. As you search all things, would you find the beauty of the Father’s predestined purpose in me and remind Him of it. I know that when I call on Him, He answers. I know that He reveals great and hidden things to me that I do not know. God, would you show me how you are weaving together my story for your Glory and my good. I ask for a spirit of wisdom to understand the revelation you want to share with me today. Help me to patiently endure as I wait on you. Renew my strength, heart, body, mind, and spirit so that I may soar on wings like eagles.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” — the things God has prepared for those who love him— (1 Corinthians 2:9)

To love Him is to wait on Him.