My devotional space faces east and it is amazing to rise each morning and watch the Lord knit together a new day. It is typically still inky black outside my window when I first open the scriptures, but pretty soon the eastern sky begins to lighten by degrees. The shadows gather in the corners until they will finally slink away entirely. The black of night fades away to blue and eventually brightens altogether as pink and orange and yellow pour forth. Eventually the sunrise overtakes the nightfall altogether.
Tag: hope
I think about Ruth’s roots in Moab and I remember that we, too, are sojourners. Each and every believer on earth is just passing through on our way to a far better place. We have a Home just over the horizon, a whole new life awaiting us in a land we haven’t yet set foot in.
This Mother’s Day, I am picturing my happy momma walkingthrough meadows of wildflowers with the One whom her soul loves. I’m imagining her engaging in deep theological discussions where everything Jesus says makes perfect sense and ah-hah moments abound. I can see them, sitting around a table laden with olives and cheese and bread and honey, breaking out in belly laughs when the Father cracks a joke. Conversations linger over long dinners and her soul is strengthened by unbroken fellowship.
It is remarkable how the risen, resurrected Savior sits with us in our sorrow.
It’s only natural to fall into the rhythm of the world around us: work, eat, play, sleep. Make a buck or two, spend it; repeat. Sit as center of our own universe. But the Creator has invited us to a higher plan of living. He bids us to wait and work and walk with the Kingdom of God in full view.
When we are heirs, we don’t get to pick and choose what responsibilities and benefits we prefer. Sons and daughters receive the challenges and blessings in equal stride.
For Joseph, there were a lot of years of pain and questioned purpose between Canaan’s pit and Egypt’s pinnacle.
I wonder, have you ever found yourself in a pit? Like Joseph with his brothers, we can be wrongfully cast into deep, dark places by others, but sometimes we find ourselves at the bottom of a cistern of our own accord. Both pit scenarios prove equally impossible to climb out unassisted.
Our weaknesses aren’t a surprise or even a disappointment to God. They are a reality that God has already factored into His perfect equation for the whole of humankind. He has accounted for our frailties. In His sovereignty, He has already made allowances and provisions and somehow incorporated our shortfalls into His larger, perfect story.