When a fire hits you, the heat burns and it hurts so bad you almost can't stand it. The smoke makes you disoriented and you just can't see clearly. The ash settles around you, making everything a dull gray. You ask, "How did this happen? Why did this happen? And who started it?" You feel your way around, hoping to find a door that leads you away from the heat. And you keep hoping that someone will hear your cries for help.
In a drought, there is something that you need, that you yearn for, that just isn't happening. The rain does not fall, the job doesn't come, the cradle is still empty, the person doesn't change, the pain won't end. And there is nothing to do but wait. And waiting is the hardest part. Every day leaves you a little more drained. Every day it gets a little harder to keep your faith. You wonder if this drought will ever end and you wonder how you can possibly go on another season.
One of my favorite scriptures in Jeremiah says:
"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit."
Whether you are being seared by a fire or parched by a drought, my wish for you this coming year is that you will have the only thing that puts out a fire or ends a drought--water. May the living water of Christ soothe your burns and quench your thirst. Then you will have the courage to face the heat and the hope to weather the drought. And that is when, like the tree, you will force your roots deep and spread out your branches and yield fruit to all around you.
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9 comments:
Amy! That is beautiful. What a nice thing to read first in the morning. I Love you!
Amy,
What a beautiful thought. Like I said before, you have a talent for words. Thank you for posting that. I think that no matter who you are, there are times in our lives that we experience both fire and drought. I know that I have many times. I am thankful for my Savior who has helped me get through all of it.
I also want you to know I copied this post to my blog. I let my friends know you wrote it, but I felt like it was something that needed to be shared with them too.
What a great scripture! Thanks for sharing...sometimes it's easy to lose sight of the important things. Hope your Christmas was merry!
That was so beautifully written Amy! I really needed to read this today! Thank You!
A friend of Dedra's copied this post and it came to my inbox this morning. It was so beautifully written I'm glad I was able to find the source. What is the reference for the Jeremiah scripture?
Thanks, Jenn! The reference is Jeremiah 17: 7-8. In verse 8, the original text says, "and shall not see when heat cometh" but if you look at the footnote, the word "see" in this case is translated from Hebrew to mean "fear."
Amy, Thank you for sharing your love of the gospel and your gift with words with us. This is simply beautiful and will leave me pondering for days. Love you!
This made me cry! This totally hit a nerve. I guess because I know all too well that without that water there is no happiness/peace through drought and fire. I've never read anything you've written and now I know I've been missing out! Thanks for this.
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