To those who grieve to the broken in need a baby has come

 

HOPE

quite the word

we all want it, need it

sometimes we don't feel there is any

death most definitely puts a big PERIOD behind any hope we could ever come up with, humanly speaking that is.

A little over 2 weeks ago we received a very discouraging piece of information from the nursing home in Germany where my father had been staying.

He had tested positive for COVID 19.... fear wanted to grip our hearts, because, let's face it, a 82 year old man, who had been struggling with Parkinson's for a very long time, who had had triple bypass surgery 19 years ago, and had been declining over the last years mentally and physically, how much hope was there for him to overcome this virus????

But.. he surprised us with never getting any fever or cough, and even testing negative for Covid after 2 weeks.

So Monday morning came with quite the shock. 

The hope for him to beat this lost. 

Peacefully we learned, he had just fallen asleep and taken his last breath.

Hope lost, yes, for more time here on earth with us,  

BUT GOD...

To the hungry and meek

To those who grieve

To the broken, in need

A baby has come 

We have known pain

We’ve felt death’s sting

God, help us believe

This baby has come

The angel appeared

Said do not fear

For peace is here

A baby has come

The advent of life

Let hope arise

We’ve our Savior and Christ

The Baby has come

The proud will be low

The humble will know

They’re valued and loved

For the Baby has come

So fitting that we are just one week away from celebrating the coming of the King, the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who, even though He is God, that day so very long ago took on flesh, humbling Himself by taking on the form of a servant.

He came, and all who recognize their need for a Saviour,  all who believe and confess that He is God's Son and paid the penalty for our sin once and for all, will be called children of God.

We are  given an eternal hope, a hope that will not disappoint, that not even death can take away, a hope that is rooted in who Jesus is and what He has done for us. 

By dying for our sins, by paying the price for our debt, He restored peace with God for us who believe!

This undeserved gift, this grace is what gives us hope, even in death,

Hope is a person.

His name is Jesus.

Do you know Him???

 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, 

so that by the power of the Holy Spirit 

you may abound in hope.

Romans 15:13

...anxiety and a body that hasn't caught up with the peace in my soul....

“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,

    my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.

I will put my Spirit upon him,

    and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

 He will not quarrel or cry aloud,

    nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;

 a bruised reed he will not break,

    and a smoldering wick he will not quench,

until he brings justice to victory;

     and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”

claimed this promise for myself many years ago..... He said He wouldn't break me .. and I know He won't..

reminded of this passage of scripture by a most wonderful friend today, I have been thinking about it again..

a bruised reed, a weak reed.. a fragile, already quite broken, helpless and vulnerable little reed... that would be me..

looking at some pictures of myself as a little girl yesterday,  I found one of my mother and my siblings and I.. I was about 2... looking quite sad in this picture ( everyone else was laughing ) I asked my mother before how come I looked so sad... she said I seemed to be sad most of the time... ha.......

read an article about trauma and depression and how to handle it as a Christian and this is what this young woman wrote:

"Now I understand that my reactions had nothing to do with whatever it was that scared me and everything to do with neuropaths laid from a childhood household dynamic that left me feeling insecure, fearful, and ready to bolt at all times......."

thinking about my childhood household dynamic I know for a fact that it left me feeling insecure and too afraid to face anything that came my way.. a sad little girl that started to cry when her father talked to her, that was woken up by a sister who couldn’t breath night after night, having to go into the “lion’s den“ to get the mother who could help, risking the violent response of the father , the little girl that had no way of knowing when what seemed like a sunny,peaceful day would suddenly turn into a horrific thunderstorm, caused by the angry outbursts of a father who could never be trusted, a little girl that was just so afraid of EVERYTHING...

thankfully, all along.. the One that God the Father had chosen, the gentle One, who pleases the soul of the Father, the One that treats those the Father has given Him with compassion and love, He, Jesus, was watching over me... giving me hope and strength and grace and since I finally met him 26 years ago, has taken so many of those fears from the past away ..

and when, like the lady said "my body reacts to conflict in ways I can't control"  He, in His gentle power and loving embrace picks me up and looks me in the eye and tells me once again....." a tender reed I will not break... take refuge in my arms, listen to my heartbeat and believe me..... you are safe here, no one can harm you..... I walk with you through all your heartaches and stresses, through the losses and the panic... I will disentangle and rewire the messes those experiences have created in you... and I will not stop until I have done it completely... until I have fully restored you, my beloved child......"

writing this, tears of gratitude and love are rolling down my face... and, in awe, as always at such a love as this... I fling my arms around His neck and bury my tear stained face in the place where it fits so perfectly... right beneath His strong shoulders... feeling His heartbeat I am able to relax... let go... and HOPE....

“Remember not the former things,

    nor consider the things of old.

 Behold, I am doing a new thing;

    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

    and rivers in the desert.

 The wild beasts will honor me,

    the jackals and the ostriches,

for I give water in the wilderness,

    rivers in the desert,

to give drink to my chosen people,

COVID-19 and reading through Job...

It started on March 13, 2020.
The 187th day of my 9 months Bible Reading Challenge #KeeptheFeast

March 13 already didn't start out as such a great day.
I guess it was a Friday.
It also turned out to be the last day we went to our fav Brewery for our usual Friday night date night.
For now, anyways.

It happened to be the weekend church was cancelled for the first time, on account of social distancing, gatherings over 100 people were discouraged ( not quite forbidden but frowned upon for sure.)


I had read through Job before.
I had studied and been greatly encouraged by some passages in Job.
I like quoting verses from Job whenever I talk about my most favourite subject : God's Sovereignty.

So on March 13, when the Bible Reading Challenge plan had me starting to read through Job I first didn't think about it too much.
On day 2 of this undertaking I remember thinking : I don't really want to read this....
I know how it ends, I know the lessons it's teaching, I don't really want to read every little detail of all the heartache, well meaning friends inflicting pain and all that...
I didn't want to have to walk through the muck and yuck of living through heart wrenching suffering for the unforeseeable future of my daily reading...

Right there it dawned on me, that as much as I would like to fast forward through the daily grind of reading this, that's just not what it is.
That's not what life is.
That's not what walking with the Lord is about.
Yes, we  know the outcome.
Yes, we know the final destination and the eternal joy that awaits us.
But here, in this life we have been given to live we have to walk through the daily muck, the daily disappointments, the tough stuff, the fear and the anxiety...

Our Father in Heaven, in His loving and purposeful providence has us trudging through the mud of daily living for a very good reason.
As we have to make our way through the hard stuff we find out that we only can do this as we are leaning more and more into Him.
Looking to Him every time we try and lift one foot out of the miry clay to make another step.
Relying on Him and humbly admitting our dependence on Him, every second of every day....

Many things have drastically changed since March 13.
Today we are under a "Shelter in place" order.
Church on Sunday was a live-streamed event on Facebook, Small group happened via Zoom and many, many new and fearful tidbits of information are assaulting each of us the moment we pick up our phones or turn on our computers or TVs.
Schools are closed and parents have been laid off or are working from home.
Fears of many people dying from this horrible virus and the economy crashing, people losing their livelihoods, are on everyone's mind....
To say all of this is unsettling doesn't quite describe the scope of this.

Today, as prescribed by my plan, I finished reading Job.

Like I said, no surprises, I knew the outcome.
I knew the lessons that are there to learn.
God, He alone is God, He deserves all the glory.
No one and nothing can thwart His plans.
In our suffering, God ordained or permitted by God, God is teaching us about Himself and is refining us, turning the heat up and bringing our sin, our pride, our self -reliance to the surface and skimming it off, making us more like Him.
God faithfully reveals Himself to us, He also shows us what we really believe about Him.
He exposes false beliefs we might have about him, our righteousness and the sin in our lives.

In the end He fully restores Job, makes him even richer than before and blesses him with a new family.

But...and that's what I never want to skip over... in it all, even though God restores him, he still walks out his life with the pain of the losses he sustained through all this.
Somewhere in there then, the fact that he encountered and had it out with God so to speak, must have changed his perspective... somehow by living through the suffering and loss he must have grown in his faith and closeness with God.

I find comfort in that.
Not only did God hear Job, never leave him and answer him, He didn't waste the pain and the hurt Job was going through.

So what does this all have in common with COVID-19?

We don't know what tomorrow holds, we have no control over it.
But of one thing we can be sure :
God is not wasting one second of this for those who love Him.
Those who rather than looking horizontally and responding with fear and panic choose ( and sometimes that very tough to do, and only He can make it happen ) to fix our eyes on Him.
Open our fists that want to hold on to what we want life to be like, and surrender it all to Him.
Trusting Him, keeping our hands open, palms up, ( sometimes that takes a lot out of us, but by His strength we can ) allowing Him to have His way in us.
Like He had in Job.

The outcome is known.
Nothing can separate us from His love.
Not even a pandemic.