3849. Thank You for dark streets.

Satisfy me in the morning with Your steadfast love,
    that I may rejoice and be glad all my days.
Make me glad for as many days as You have afflicted me,
    and for as many years as I have seen evil.
Let Your work be shown to Your servant,
    and Your glorious power to her children.
Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon me,
    and establish the work of my hands upon me;
    yes, establish the work of my hands! Psalm 90:14-17

Cause me to know Thy lovingkindness in the morning,

For in Thee do I trust.

Cause me to know the way wherein I should walk,

For I lift up my soul unto Thee.

Deliver me, O LORD,

Teach me to do Thy will,

Quicken me, O LORD

For I lift up my soul unto Thee.

Last night the monthly Dunbar Spring Neighborhood Association gathered together yet one more time. And the conversations wended long, as we discussed the challenges of recycling and how China is no longer going to take most of our plastics and the real issue is contaminated materials and I am totally guilty of not understanding how thoroughly I need to wash out my yogurt containers and take off all of the little lids, and how expensive and ineffective it is to distribute door hangers telling homeowners when Brush and Bulky pick-up is, and what are Living Streets and the rising number of deaths of pedestrians and cyclists and motorcyclists which are obviously Dying Streets, and big new apartment complexes piling high all around us and bringing in national franchises like Starbucks that threaten local coffee shops like Exo, and yes, bunny signs to warn drivers not to squish little bunnies. And on and on about streetlights, and what is better, dark streets or bright streets or something in-between streets.

And I left early. Well, half an hour after the meeting was supposed to end, but long before the conversation of whether we should also have coyote and javelin signs as well. And I got to walk home down the very darkest street, Second Street, my street.

And I am not foolish enough to walk on the sidewalk in the dark because of the uneven surface beneath my feet and low overhanging mesquite branches tangling in my hair and spiking my face, so I always walk in the predawn and post-sunset dark down the middle of the street.

The thing is, unless it is dark, you can’t see any stars.

The stars that are ever present, big and beautiful and declaring the glory and power and majesty of God cannot be seen when it is bright outside, even though our idea of brightness is much, much smaller than the reality of spinning galaxies almost out to infinity.

So it makes sense, the being glad for the affliction of days and the evil about, because thus we can see His work and know His glorious power.

Fair is the sunshine,
  Fairer still the moonlight,
And all the twinkling starry host;
  Jesus shines brighter,
  Jesus shines purer,
Than all the angels heav’n can boast!