Hills and Valleys

Deuteronomy 11:11-12

"but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drink water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year."

These verses struck me this morning. They are so beautiful. I stopped reading and spent some time just thinking about them, and how they can apply to my own walk with God.

Life in general, but especially the Christian life, can easily be characterized by hills and valleys. Some times we are sitting on top of the world, sailing smoothly through life. Things are happening nicely, and easily. And then suddenly, we may find ourselves in a valley.

But the rain of heaven falls in both the hills and the valleys. Hebrews 13:5 tells us that God will never leave us or forsake us. His "rain" will water us in the highs and the lows. If you think about it, the valley is where you will find pools of water, not up in the hilltops. Have you had an experience like that? You found yourself going through something really difficult, but God provided pools of water for you in the midst of your valley? I have. But, I'll be honest, and admit that I often didn't see the pools of water until I had passed all the way through the valley, climbed up onto the hilltop again, and then turned to gaze back down. And then, I was amazed at all the "water" down there!

Even more wonderful is the idea that our land (our walk with God), is a land for which the LORD our God cares, that His eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year. Personally, I love the idea that God's eyes are always on me. As a very immature Christian, this idea was pretty scary. I viewed it as, "God is watching all the really bad things I am doing, and He is going to condemn me for it."

I have done some pretty bad things. But I know that I have been washed as white as snow by the redeeming blood of Christ (Isaiah 1:18.) Now, the idea of God always watching me makes me feel really safe, and taken care of. I know that no matter what happens to me, God is watching, He knows, He gets it, He cares.

Don't miss that God's eyes are watching from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year. I looked up the Hebrew for "year." It does mean, quite literally, year. But it also means a year as a revolution of time. I take that to mean, from the beginning of the event to the end of the event. That event can be lots of different things. As in, from the beginning of my loss, until I recovered from that loss. Or, from the beginning of my struggle with that sin, until I was able to repent and accept forgiveness for that sin. And even, from the beginning of that ministry to the time I saw the first fruit from that ministry.

Another thing that the original Hebrew uncovers is that the word "end," as in "from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year" has as one of its alternate translations the word reward. Read it this way: from the beginning of the year to the very reward of the year. I can think of a few examples of this from my own life. Sometimes I struggle with unbelief. But every single time, when I have wrestled through the issue with God, I am rewarded with increased faith. That increased faith would be the reward (end) of that struggle (year.)

Whew, I hope you got all that! It makes perfect sense to me, but I'm not completely sure that any of the rest of you are going to get it. If you don't, that is OK, because I think I took enough out of those two little verses for the both of us. (And then some!)