Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky. Psalm 85:11
Have you ever heard the term, “I’d move heaven and earth”? It means a person will do anything, even the impossible. Fortunately, for the Christian, we don’t have to do the impossible. It has already been done on our behalf. But that doesn’t mean we are to be totally passive. We do have our part in response. It is called being faithful.
Faithful enough to get on our knees and ask for directions. Have you ever watched those old movies where the squires and knights come before the king while he’s perched on his throne in the mighty hall of a castle? They kneel and bow to receive orders. They don’t get up until the king has given them the command. Faithfulness is staying on our knees (spiritually, we do have to get on with our everyday things) awaiting the King’s bidding, and being ready to do what He commands. It is being ready to act, or to patiently wait until we are needed. Only then, do we rise from the ground and on our feet.
God is faithful as well. He provides. Evidence of His love is all around us, and if we are in tune to it, it can be so bountiful that it feels like it is springing up from the ground just like flowers after a cold, harsh winter, or a refreshing bubbly stream from the earth on a parched, hot day.
Like a good parent, God delights in providing for his children, but He also disciplines them. He looks down from the sky and treats us with loving justice, or righteousness, even when we don’t recognize it. His righteous way of dealing with us, through Christ’s interceding, is evidence of his faithfulness towards us.
One Friday, on a mount called Calvary, the impossible happened. Heaven and earth were moved as God and man met. The ultimate act of faithfulness sprang up from a wooden cross jammed into the ground, and righteousness reached down from Heaven to receive it – for you and for me – just as this Psalm states it would. That’s enough to bring me to my knees. How about you?
