Read: Zech 10:6-9"So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust, my great army which I sent among you. - Joel 2:25
I started my adult life with a handsome husband. We soon entertained an adorable family of three precocious children. As they grew, God also gave me a meaningful career. To top it all off, He provided an attentive Pomeranian pet. I counted all of these gifts as abundant blessings for which I thanked God daily. Over a period of five short years, however, these treasures were stripped from my life.
My children went off to college or moved away from home. I lost my vocation as a teacher and mentor for at risk children. Then, as if things could not get any more dismal, my husband of twenty-two years told me that he saw no option for us but divorce.
I soon stood alone in half of a duplex with a portable dishwasher, a single recliner and a couch that did not even match, a few bookcases, some furniture my dad made for me over the years and an empty king-sized bed. My Pomeranian was my only true remaining treasure. Since I ended up working three jobs to pay my bills and to build up a nest egg toward retirement, I eventually even lost my cherished dog, when I gave her to a lovely family across town with small children whom she adored.
It is interesting to note in Joel 2:25 that God declares that He is the one who sends this army of figurative "locust" into our life. He uses them to strip us of everything, which we hold precious and which we believe that we cannot live without. One by one, they slip through our fingers like chaff in the wind. We sink deeper by the day into a pit of gloom and despair, until one day we gain the courage to look up into the light of His face.
Somehow as one day drags into the next, we stop struggling to regain the life we once knew. We throw our soul upon God’s mercy and grace, and we trust Him to do what is best for us. We find our strength, our joy and our hope centered in Him alone. Once we are stripped of every ounce of our “self” and we cast all of our cares upon Him, then He starts to restore everything that He allowed Satan to strip from our lives.
Over these last several years, God gave me the inner strength to realize that He and I can meet any trial life throws my way. He also restored to me a new loving husband, multiple grandchildren, a fulfilling ministry, a quaint cottage home full of beautiful furniture and another gorgeous Pomeranian that distinctly resembles my little, lost treasure.
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have learned to never take for granted one of Your precious gifts. I trust You with every detail of my life and I look to You for Your guidance and wisdom for each moment that remains until I finally see You face-to-face. Thought for the Day:
When all is lost, look up…your redemption draws near.
