Tearing the Curtain

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada at 9:15 PM

I have never experienced 17 hours of continual daylight before. But as I sit in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on vacation with my parents, I have been experiencing that very thing. I don’t see it as mere coincidence that I am so far north when the solstice happens (tomorrow).
I find my body is governed by light. Being here has reminded me of being a kid in the summer and having to go to bed before the sun set. It seemed unnatural to do so. It was the same thing last night, as the sun didn’t set until after 10 p.m. I was (and am) energized by the daylight, and I can’t bring myself to sleep as long as the sun is still out. But my mom was tired last night and so we pulled the blackout curtains over our three large hotel windows around 9:30 p.m., well before the sun set. I couldn’t help but feel we were doing such injustice. It was hard for me to understand last night why I felt such a way, but after some time being still over the river tonight, God revealed why.

It felt like such an injustice because we were exerting our control over a situation that shouldn’t have been. So often we cover the light because it is inconvenient to our circumstances. We exert our control far too much. What we fail to remember and recognize is that beyond the closed curtain, the light keeps on shining—and we can never change that. So why do we ignore it? Why do we not allow it to teach us? We fail to recognize that there is much waiting for us behind the curtain.

It put into words what I know I so often do. God’s light penetrates and exposes my true condition, for there is nothing for me to hide behind. But so often, I too, pull back the curtain because it seems a time of brokenness or exposure is inconvenient. I would rather see the light when I choose to do so. What I fail to remember in that is that the light continues to shine behind my own curtain, and I only prolong what the exposure will bring. I realize that when the light is uncomfortable to me, it probably means I am not in it enough, that I have been in the darkness too long and I am having to adjust to the new condition. I must allow God to shine his sovereign light over me at all times and realize the exposure and brokenness is good. It always is, even if it is often difficult. It puts me in my proper position before my Creator, realizing I am mere dust and it is only through His breath I am who I am.

I was remembering the Tabernacle tonight and how there were two curtains before the inner court, where the Holies of Holies was found. Sacrifices had to be presented on the altar in the inner court, and not just once. Then I remembered when Jesus gave his Spirit up upon the cross and breathed His last breath, it was then the curtain in the temple was torn. It is a beautiful picture of how when His sacrifice was complete, the barriers “preventing” us from attaining access to the Father directly were torn down and away. We can now draw near directly to the Father through Jesus. There is no more veil preventing us from seeing Him directly.

I wonder how often I and others still live as if we are under the Old law, and in a sense, use the curtain as an excuse not to see the Holies of Holies? We do such injustice when we do such a thing, because we fail to recognize what the Father has done for us through the sacrifice of His son…we choose not to allow ourselves to be fully redeemed and continue to present sacrifices upon the altar in place of ourselves. May we be done away with the old and move to the new—the curtain torn down, exposing the light, and fall down at the altar before our Father. We have been bought at such a price to do so—let us never take it in vain.

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Hebrews 10:19-25