[The Lord] put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. (Psalm 40:3 (NRSV))One day while having my hair cut, the new stylist told me about her experience with chemotherapy. She spoke of fear, doctor visits, feelings of anger and despair. When her treatments ended, she began to heal physically and emotionally. And that summer, she planted a garden. She said, “I knew nothing about gardening, but it was good therapy. When my tomato plants bloomed, I was so happy; but when the blooms withered, I cried, not realizing that small tomatoes were beginning to grow. When they grew and ripened, we had homemade salsa all summer.”
Her words made me think of losses in our lives. When we’re young, it is easy to focus on hopes and plans; but later, we begin to lose one thing after another. Children grow up and leave home, jobs end, health fails, we lose friends. Eventually, we feel as if we have nothing left to lose. In time, however, we begin to see that God often replaces a loss with something new and unexpected: a friend who holds us up, a new interest to replace what we can no longer do, or perhaps compassion for others we would not have had without the loss. Loss is not God’s final word.
TODAY'S PRAYER: Thank you, God, for your love, which will never let us down and gives us hope wherever life takes us. Amen.
TODAY'S READING: Psalm 84:1
(0) For the leader. On the gittit. A psalm of the sons of Korach:
2 (1) How deeply loved are your dwelling-places,
Adonai-Tzva’ot!
3 (2) My soul yearns, yes, faints with longing
for the courtyards of Adonai;
my heart and body cry for joy
to the living God.
4 (3) As the sparrow finds herself a home
and the swallow her nest, where she lays her young,
[so my resting-place is] by your altars,
Adonai-Tzva’ot, my king and my God.
5 (4) How happy are those who live in your house;
they never cease to praise you! (Selah)
6 (5) How happy the man whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are [pilgrim] highways.
7 (6) Passing through the [dry] Baka Valley,
they make it a place of springs,
and the early rain clothes it with blessings.
8 (7) They go from strength to strength
and appear before God in Tziyon.
9 (8) Adonai, God of armies, hear my prayer;
listen, God of Ya‘akov. (Selah)
10 (9) God, see our shield [the king];
look at the face of your anointed.
11 (10) Better a day in your courtyards
than a thousand [days elsewhere].
Better just standing at the door of my God’s house
than living in the tents of the wicked.
12 (11) For Adonai, God, is a sun and a shield;
Adonai bestows favor and honor;
he will not withhold anything good
from those whose lives are pure.
13 (12) Adonai-Tzva’ot,
how happy is anyone who trusts in you!
(Complete Jewish Bible).THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: When I feel overwhelmed by loss, I will look for what God is growing in me.
PRAYER FOCUS: Farmers
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