Isaiah 54:8-10. God tells us that in overflowing wrath he hid his face from us for a moment, but he loves us with an everlasting love and will have compassion on us. He says this is like the days of Noah to him. Just as he swore he would never again destroy the earth in that way, he reaffirms his covenant to us - "the mountains may depart and the hills be removed; but my steadfast love shall not depart from you".

This is a wonderful, comforting reminder of God's everlasting love and comfort. We really have nothing to fear. But ... we do fear! Why? Because bad things do happen, and we are human, and we do not trust enough! The people of Noah's time feared as the flood waters rose. Anyone would fear as they see mountains and hills fall. That is why we fear, because things can and do happen that cause our human nature to be afraid. God is not promising those things won't happen - they clearly did and will continue to. In fact, as we get further from him, those things will get worse (and we are already pretty far from him, I hope they don't get much worse!). But he is promising that, while he may turn his face from us "for a moment," he will never stop loving us nor forget his covenant.

Remember too, that God turning his face from us "in overflowing wrath" is really us turning so far toward sin and away from God that we cut ourselves off from him and his love. We create hell here on earth, our own personal hell, and then we suffer the consequences. The way God describes it here reminds me so much of how I feel when I have to establish boundaries when people are upsetting me. People I love can go off the rails and be very wrong and hurtful (we all can, at times). When they do that and won't listen to how they are hurting me, I have to set up boundaries - limits on how much I can interact with them until they see their hurtful ways and change. I do not have to accept bad treatment for love's sake - no one does! When I set up these boundaries, often the people I am withdrawing from are very hurt - they think that I am being cruel or hurtful to them. I am sure it does feel that way to them, because they refuse to see that they have done anything wrong or acknowledge that they have been hurtful. They just do not see it, so they can't see why I would pull away. I am not guiltless here, either, I have done this myself to others.

This is exactly the thing that God is describing. When we get so attached to our sin - not seeing it as something wrong - we tell ourselves all is good and we are good people. We can even convince ourselves that the very sins we are engaging in that are pulling us away from God are good things. In this state, we are so far from God and we cannot feel his love or the happiness that comes from knowing him. We feel anxious and empty and we keep trying to fill the emptiness, often with more sin. We are in a box, cut off from God, and we keep filling it with more things to cling to. All of this feels like God has turned from us, but in fact we have just created our own boundaries separating ourselves from him with our sin.

We have boxed ourselves in and away from him. We need to step out of our box, letting go of everything we have brought in with us and are clinging to so hard. He will be there - out in the light, loving us as always.