“You do not have to sit outside in the dark.
If, however, you want to look at stars you will find darkness is required.”

Annie Dillard

God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Is that true? The first part is, of course. God loves you. What about the second part? God has a wonderful plan for your life. Is that true? It depends on what you mean by wonderful, doesn’t it?

When I think of a wonderful plan for my life I tend to think in terms of happiness and good health, prosperity and abundance; a life that is relatively free from pain and suffering, tragedy, hardship and disappointment.

That’s my idea of wonderful. The cold, hard reality, however, is that not all of God’s people live a fairy tale existence. Not all of God’s people live happily ever after. Bad things happen to forgiven people, to people of faith.

The truth is: God loves us and has a tragic plan for some lives. That’s never more evident than in the text we land on this week in Hebrews 11. We meet some O.T. saints who found themselves in some of the darkest places imaginable – torture and chains, destitute, afflicted and mistreated. Faith, however, like the stars, shines brightest in the darkness. See you on Sunday.