The Fog.

I recollect one occasion in my mid-teens when I had a bunch of friends over one night to watch a video (I have no idea now what the film was… can’t have been that good!). When it finished we stopped the video resulting in us suddenly watching the tail end of a movie called The Fog since it was on TV. This was a horror film about zombies that attack in the fog (I presume this was to save on the cost of time consuming special effects :o) I laugh now but at the time it was quite chilling. Anyway, we were transfixed as these zombies began to lay siege to a building clawing at the doors and windows. All of a sudden a hand thudded against the window behind us, producing as chilling squeal as it was dragged across the pain towards the front door. Naturally we screamed with [film induced] fright!
In the end it was just my younger brother returning home from somewhere – phew!

“We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.” (1 Cor 13:12-13 MSG)

Fog is not pleasant when you are trying to get somewhere; it is disorientating and leaves you feeling vulnerable because you cannot see where it is you are going.
Ruth and I were once driving back [from somewhere ‘up north’ I think] with our pastor’s wife. It was in the early hours of the morning and we were exhausted. Coming back down the M50 we suddenly hit fog of the like I have never seen before. It was so thick that when a van recklessly overtook us [at 30mph], it had completely vanished, lights and all, just 10 feet ahead of us!

In life we encounter situations through which we have to navigate through a ‘fog’ of not understanding why it is happening [or why God is permitting it]. This is tough, disorientating and frustrating at times because we may never have answers for it; the ‘fog’ will remain until we are at home in Heaven. We don’t like this but we must accept it; in fact simply ‘accepting’ it is useless, we have to trust that God knows what is best and listen to his instructions.

-Andrew Carey