“….When the Sovereign Lord was preparing swarms of locust after the king’s share had been harvested and just as the second crop was coming up. When they stripped the land clean… When the Sovereign Lord was calling for judgment by fire; it dried up the great deep and devoured the land… Amos begs, “Please forgive, please stop! How can Jacob (Israel) survive? He is so small!” So the Lord relented…” Amos 7:1-6
Just because we may be prosperous and secure does not mean we should be settled in life as we know it, as being “blessed” and then….just carry on. Sometimes, maybe, our ideals can become so distorted and clouded. Even God seems to have his breaking point. And yet, He relents.
But to be a faithful Christian, God expects (perhaps demands), our best. And we are free to choose.
The deeper my relationship with God develops, the more I realize that my being a committed Christian becomes much more challenging.
This December 5th would have celebrated my Mom’s 69th birthday. As the years continue to pass since her death 6 years ago, I understand her, respect her and honor her more now than I ever have. I also know that if she were alive, it wouldn’t mean that our difficulties and struggles would evaporate because of these feelings I’ve developed for her since; nothing could be more distorted. However, I find myself wanting to do her proud as one in the legacy she left behind. I want to fully be the Christian that I was created to be, and then given life to…through my mother.
But I am so small.
And like Jacob (like Israel), how could I survive coming out of a land, a home where the “walls that were built true to plumb, with a plumb line in hand” (Amos 7:7) were blessed with life and then slowly dismantled by human brokenness? How could I make a difference in this life that was given to me? And I am clouded because I am so very, very small.
Yet I have learned, we are ALL created in God’s image, we are ALL built on His hopes and dreams, we ALL come through our parents and we ALL live…..and we all mess up.
And again, our Lord relents.
And again, He forgives.
And He sent us a Sovereign King.
And again, we have hope.
And with that hope, if we choose to receive it, we are further blessed and strengthened and guided with love, peace and joy….to do our best to become the true Christians that God has created us to be.
May God’s peace be with you.
(Mary Lindfors)
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