How will she respond? Only God knows. Only God can provide the healing for a tortured young soul. Only God can bring peace to a family in crisis. Only God can bring the help she so desperately desires.
I weep for my friends. And for so many others who quietly, desperately deal with crisis. May they all seek God’s goodness, seek God’s wisdom, seek God’s grace.
Needing a break from my thoughts and prayers, I step
outside. Opening the front door and walking onto the front porch, I run right
into it. Spring. Hope. It blooms in my front yard, right outside my living room
window. Quickly, I capture the Spring on film, allowing the beauty to erase the
fear. Smiling now, I feel peace. Peace in my own heart, peace in the car
rapidly eating up the miles.
Back in the house, I open the drapes and let Spring
inside. Peace enters with it, for I’m now confident that Hope exists in the car
as it eats up the miles. Hope exists in the distant city. Hope exists right in
my front yard. Hope exists in my heart. I only need to open the windows of my
faith to experience its blooms.
Isaiah 61:1b-3a “He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness
for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of
vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve
in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of
gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of
despair.”
