I was pondering on Isa. 21:11 paraphrased , How much time is left? (The Living Bible).  The particular word speaks of “the watchman” who in the middle of the night is asked, “What is left of the night? ”

Is it really night?  Yes, but a morning is coming, “a morning without clouds (2 Sam. 23:4) which was the word a dear friend of mine often quoted.  I knew him well enough to know that He lived in that expectancy.  We all should, for “the night is far spent, the day is at hand.” (Rom. 13:12). 

My thoughts went to “Gipsy” Smith (1860-1947) and his song “The world says, I´m dreaming, but I know ´tis Jesus…”  He was inspired to write that song when he was one day resting in a corner of a railway compartment.  God had recently blessed his ministry mightily.  Some teenagers noticed him and said, “Oh, he´s only dreaming”, and soon that song was written.

To “Gypsy” Smith personally it was a bright day in his soul, and he certainly radiated that sunny joy of Jesus, although he knew of course that the world lies in darkness.  The refrain in his song goes like this:

Let me dream on, if I am dreaming,

Let me dream on, my sins are gone,

Night turns to dawn, love´s light is streaming,

So if I´m dreaming, let me dream on!

Someone said, you should rather be singing, if I´m dreaming, let me wake up!  He deserved a kind smile, but he missed the point.  Indeed, if this is a dream only, I don´t want to wake up, but praise God it´s not, it´s real!

Ps. 91:6 talks about “the pestilence that stalks in darkness”, and now the coronavirus is doing just that.  Indeed, it thus rains with virus evils on the just as well as the unjust, while we are fleeing to our Refuge, “until these calamities have passed by” (Ps. 57:1).

Our frail bodies are subject to much trouble and death, and yet we know that a morning without clouds is coming. It´s real, for He is real. And speaking of death, it has in Christ been abolished anyway! 2Tim. 1:10

March 11, 2020, - jn