Faith – Part 2

Last week we pondered Prince Philip’s crisis of faith alongside the historic landing of Apollo 11. We explored how our natural tendencies toward false realities and skewed perceptions were stumbling blocks in our relationship with HaShem.

As I was telling my sister about this episode of “The Crown”, I walked across the hall to our spare bedroom. There on the floor, spotlighted in the streaming sunlight from the window was a cloth applique in the shape of the fish symbol for Yeshua. First, sewing is definitely not one of my gifts so I don’t recall having bought an applique, but let’s assume I did at some point. Second, I’d been in and out of that room multiple times over the past few days and I know the fish applique was not there. Third, I couldn’t miss it shining in the middle of the floor. Fourth, and perhaps most amazing, when I turned it over, the word embroidered on the front of the applique was “Faith”!

I ran across the hall to grab my phone to call my sister and excitedly share the providential timing of this finding. After a short while as I kept describing the miraculous finding, I again went to look at the applique. By then the morning sun had continued to rise and in so doing was shining at an angle through a plastic storage bin which cast a translucent shadow of the bin’s edge over the fish applique. The result was a growing shadow (from the bin) and yet the sun’s light was still visible, though partially filtered, as it shone on the fish.

As I was sharing all of this with my sister, it reminded me that when we have faith, even when times grow dark, God’s light shines through. Yeshua is always with us. As we further processed the faith fish applique experience, she was reminded of a sermon by Howard Silverman at Beth Messiah many years ago discussing, you guessed it, the Apollo 11 landing related to the subject of . . . faith! Rabbi Silverman’s comments highlighted how when the lunar module circled the dark side of the moon, there was a time when it was out of communication and sight of Mission Control. In his sermon, this time was likened to having faith, times when we may not be in direct communication, knowledge, or understanding of HaShem’s presence, times when we rely on trusting in Him for strength and certainty that all will be alright eventually.

As she and I noodled these insights, and divinely timed connections through time, she thought of lunar and solar eclipses, where the sun may appear to move when it doesn’t or when the moon is darkened by the earth’s shadow rather than vanishing, just as when our false realities and skewed perceptions keep us away from the truth of Him. Having faith means believing in something we cannot at that moment see – that there is another side of the moon, that the sun has not moved, that God is real.

The divinely placed fish applique that revealed “Faith” by my seeking, glowing in the morning sun, brought alive vivid reminders of other times of darkness overcome, when what appeared by human observation was not as it seemed, when the deeper answers were not visible but required a leap of faith, in time to be revealed.

This week I urge you to be even more open to being reminded of His Presence. For when we do, He so often surprises us with evidences that He is with us through it all, the light-filled ones and the dark times as well. Without faith, darkness is as it appears. With faith, we can see His light through it all.

Shabbat shalom.
Diane

P.S. As I finished kvelling about the continuing revelations, interpreted by me as God Winks that we’re hearing Him correctly, at that moment, we learned of an upcoming solar eclipse to occur the next day.

About the Author

Leave a Reply