Toward the end of Chapter 8 of One Thousand Gifts, author Ann Voskamp acknowledges that there are times when remembering doens’t kindle gratitude and instead leaves third-degree burns. She confesses:
“There are moments that as sure as I bruise I don’t feel like good things have been given. What of all the memories where Christ seems absent? When the bridge shakes and heaves, when ‘how will he not also’ reads more like ‘he will not”. Trauma’s storm can mask the Christ and feelings can lie.”
Ann notes that God’s way with Moses models the proper perspective for us. In Exodus 33:22-23, God speaks to Moses: “When my glory passes by, I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back.”
Rather than viewing darkness as shattering our dreams,, the author suggests that it is in our darkness that God is passing by. God has not abandoned us. Darkness is the holiest ground- and God’s glory is passing by. Then we will see His back. Our thanks feeds our trust in Him.