Tag: hope

Immanuel

~ Barbara ~ Leave a comment

This beloved Christmas verse evokes a sense of warmth with its familiarity and fulfillment. However, the comfort it offers is often not as deep as its context. It is far more than an oh, yay, another prophecy of the Messiah!

The words that follow verse 14 describe the devastation that will come upon God’s people—their city and the temple will be destroyed; the Jews will be captured and brought into exile. I find it interesting that Isaiah doesn’t prepare them for their captivity with a call to repentance or a speech about endurance. Instead he points them to an event in the far future, beyond their 70 years of bondage, beyond 400 years of silence from Heaven. What he gives them is hope for their ultimate deliverance.

Immanuel, God with us, will be born.

We are still a suffering people. Like the Jews Isaiah spoke to, we feel the pain of desolation, the loss of people we love, the anxiety of an insecure future, the disappointment of our frailty—all keen reminders that we are not “home.” That’s why Isaiah’s words are also for us.

At Christmas we will enjoy festive decorations, giving and receiving gifts, gathering with family and friends, and singing familiar carols. But they will soon be filed under “Christmas 2024” and we will continue to face the troubles and trials of life. The deep and lasting joy we find in Christmas is not only that the Messiah has come, but that He will come again. And He will bring us home, to the place we were created for.

When we say, “Merry Christmas” is not about a day dubbed “the most wonderful day of the year” but for the promised day when, not only will God be with us, but when we will be with Him.

Certainty & Confidence

~ Barbara ~ Leave a comment

Take heart! The upcoming election is secure. Anxiety gnaws, newscasts distress, opinions dither—but they only offer humanity’s feeble wisdom.

Remember! God reigns. He alone knows the end from the beginning. He sees what is yet to come. He is on His throne and is the ultimate authority in the affairs of earth.

Be encouraged! His purposes will stand. He will do what He pleases—to bless us, draw us, protect us—and to reveal Himself as the Glorious One and draw all people to Himself.

Isaiah 46:9b-10

Adjusting and Believing

~ Barbara ~ 6 Comments

Regretfully, I didn’t get a post scheduled for this morning. I seem to yield to an unrealistic tendency to fill time slots without considering the emotional drain of current circumstances. A blank in my schedule does not mean I should fill it. I may just need to breathe.

Last week I told you we are walking through some health issues with our son David. Let me introduce him to you in case you don’t know him.

David is a young man of 44. He has mental deficiencies that render him nonverbal and have his intelligence locked on about the level of a 6-year old. In some ways he’s intellectually years ahead of that. Spiritually, he’s ahead of most of us.

He prays in earnest for everyone—that is not hyperbole. I don’t know of a waitress who has served us without the blessing of David’s prayers on our ride home. He prays for every flashing light we pass, every upsetting headline, every ball game, every surgery or sickness he hears about, every affliction or problem—everyone. Paul would have loved him because he pretty much prays without ceasing (1 Thes. 5:17).

He also worships wholeheartedly—without reserve, without question, without doubt that there is a God who sees, knows, and loves him. David praises as naturally as he breathes. He and the psalmist are like-minded: “Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever” (Psalm 106:1).  

David is sweet and without guile. David is a pray-er and a worshipper. And David has cancer.

The good news is, it is highly curable and his prognosis is good. The hard truth is the road to get there is undesirable. This week is his first of four 5-day weeks of chemo several weeks apart. He displays anxiety and is not happy about it, but his attitude is wonderful and he cooperates. He kisses all the nurses and today he asked one if she knows Jesus. (She does.)

Over the years I have prayed for many cancer patients, asking God for healing and grace. This week I learned how vapid my prayers have been. In my head I would check off the type of cancer and whether chemo or radiation, but I had no notion of what either meant. I could never imagine what it was like to sit for hours and watch bags of fluid drip so slowly, knowing that the chemicals fighting the cancer were sapping the body. The tentative adaptation to a new normal, the sluggishness of passing time, the air of resignation, the watching of the clock, never forgetting the end is months away (and for some much longer).

This is why I never got to my blog this week. It was simply not in my bandwidth, but I will take a page out of David’s playbook. I will pray for every concern, every need, and every person that comes our way. And I will worship the God who is always worthy, always in control, and always the lover of my soul.

Thank you for listening to my mother-heart. And thank you for praying—and worshipping—with us.

Finding Hope, 65 Meditations for a Broken Heart

I Love Spring

~ Barbara ~ Leave a comment

I love the burst of green that seems to change the landscape overnight—a brilliance of color shooing away winter’s gray.

I love blossoming cherry trees, magnolias, and dogwoods and the sight of golden forsythia swaying in the breeze.

I love to hear birds chirping and watch them gathering bits of grass and twigs for nests.

I love colorful crocuses and hyacinths, daffodils and tulips flaunting petals of pink and purple, yellow and red.

I love shedding bulky winterwear in exchange for lightweight wraps.

I love days that stretch longer and stretches in the seventh inning of a ballgame.

I love seeing neighbors work in their yards while their children ride bikes and shoot baskets.

I love sunlight shining from blue skies dotted with cotton candy clouds.

I love fresh strawberries, sweet and juicy, that hold the promise of becoming sweeter and juicier.

I love spring rains that produce splashing puddles, flowing streams, and full reservoirs.

I love spring because it’s a season of promise. It reminds me that winter is not as harsh or fruitless as it appears because it’s always followed by a season of hope, whether in nature or in my personal life.

See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come.
Song of Solomon 2:11-12

Finding Hope, 65 Meditations for a Broken Heart