Saturday, December 7, 2013

Hope

Had I been Joseph's mother
I'd have prayed
protection from his brothers:
"God keep him safe, 
he is so young
so different from 
the others."
Mercifully she never knew
there would be slavery
and prison too.

Has I been Moses' mother
I'd have wept
to keep my little son;
praying she might forget
the babe drawn from the water
of the Nile,
had I not kept 
him for her
nursing him the while?
Was he not mine
and she
but Pharaoh's daughter?

Had I been Mary
Oh, had I been she
I would have cried 
as never a mother cried,
"....Anything, O God,
anything....
but crucified!"

With such prayers
importunate
my finite wisdom
would assail
Infinite Wisdom
should prevail!

-Ruth Bell Graham

Every night I pray over my tiny boy, much the same way I imagine these mother's prayed for their sons. As I hold his chubby little feet in my hands, smell his sweaty little baby head nestled under my chin, and see his eye lashes resting softly on his cheeks, I am overwhelmed with love for him. So when I think about the heart ache they must have felt when they saw there babies suffering, I can only imagine they must have questioned their God. Had their pain and the suffering of their precious boys been God's best for them?  Why didn't He intervene on their behalf? Why didn't He rescue them?

Had Joseph been rescued from his brothers, thousands would have perished in famine, perhaps even Joseph. Had Moses not been raised in Pharaoh's house, he would have perished and his people would not have been set free from slavery. And had Jesus been saved by God, we would all perish in our sin. God's wisdom is beyond what we can see or understand. While that does not make the pain hurt less or the suffering more tolerable, it does make God trustworthy. 

If your heart is breaking, Beloved hold on! You are not alone. There is no promise from God that we will be rescued, but He does not leave us. Jesus knows first hand how you are feeling, if you are crying out and feeling scared and alone. Jesus has been there. Mark 14:36 "Abba, Father," he cried out, "Everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine." He asked if it is possible that God take his suffering from Him. He also cried out on the cross in Matthew 27:46 "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

Christmas is a time to celebrate hope. The hope of heaven (Jesus) and promise of wholeness which was born in pain (Labor) and brought forth in suffering (The Crucifixion).














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