The Path of the Righteous through the Haze

International The News reports: "Indonesia stepped up aerial operations on Monday to extinguish forest fires raging on Sumatra island as Malaysia remained smothered by smog and Singapore enjoyed sunny skies thanks to favourable winds." Just the night before I was due to return to Singapore (Saturday morning), the headline news were that Singapore's PSI reading has reached a record high of 401 late Friday afternoon. So I prayed to the Lord that the Lord would drive the haze away from Singapore and it would be clear when I reached the island-state.

At 12:30pm Saturday the plane landed at Johor Bahru Senai Airport and it was very hazy still. By 2pm, as I was crossing the JB Causeway to Woodlands, Singapore, sunshine broke through, though the Singapore's sky was still cloudy and slightly hazy. By the time I reached my home at Upper Bukit Timah Road, I could see blue skies outside my windows. I turned on the news and it was reported that for the first time in three or four days, the PSI reading has dropped below 200, in fact it has dropped to 73 by 3pm. I could not help but rejoice that the Lord had answered my prayers as He has done in the past, even during the SARS crisis in March 2003 which never reached Sabah when I was pastor of a local church in Kota Kinabalu.

A couple of verses came to mind. I was encouraged to pray last Friday and early Saturday based on what Jesus said in John 14:13-14, "Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, that the Father may be glorified in the Son; 14 if you ask anything in my name, I will do it." 

When I reflected on the goodness of God late Saturday, enjoying clear blue skies in Singapore as I reached my College's apartment, one passage from Proverbs came to mind: The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. KJV... the path of the righteous is like shining light...unto a perfect day. Every where we go we bring light, like the John the Baptist who was a shining lamp; as we tread the earth, God's beautiful creation where haze and smog will not have the final say but will disappear in the path of the righteous.