This past Sunday, my husband and I attended a Super Bowl party with some wonderful couples from our Sunday School class. At one point in the evening, there were three of us ladies sitting around the dining room table. We began talking about marriage, jobs, babies, etc. During the conversation, it was revealed that all three of us had something in common. Each of us, at some point in the last 3 years, had held babies in our wombs that we were never allowed to hold in our hands.
I no longer think of this loss daily but, once it is brought to mind, the thoughts linger. So, that is where my thoughts have been this week…I have been contemplating loss…
As I did a little reading yesterday morning, I came to this verse in Joel:
So I will restore to you the years the swarming locust has eaten… – Joel 2:25 NKJV
This sentence stuck with me throughout the day. I must admit, at first, the years the locust has eaten is the phrase that ran continually through my mind. I kept thinking…that is why this loss hurts…years have been taken from me…years that should have been spent making memories. However, by the time I was driving home, my thoughts had shifted. Suddenly, I began to focus on the Lord’s promise…I will restore.
That is a powerful promise…a promise that only God could fulfill. I find immense comfort in knowing that we have a God of restoration. Whatever our loss…there will come a day when it will all be restored.
Now the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will personally restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little. – 1 Peter 5:10 HCSB
God will personally restore…how amazing is that. I do not know exactly what that will look like, but I know that God does not do anything half-way. God knows our losses…He knows the specific things that our wounds have cost us…secret longings that we do not share with others.
Restore…to bring back…to be given back possession of something that was taken. Thank you, Lord. Though we suffer for awhile here on earth…all will be personally restored by You one day.
Wow! You’ve caught up with me in the Bible reading and are now going to zoom right by. Isn’t this incredible?! I just read the book of Joel last night. (Though my mind continues to return to a passage in Hosea that won’t let go. Hosea 13:4-6)
He does care for us in our times of wilderness and drought. He does know our losses and wounds. And He does promise to restore us! I appreciate that you pointed out that the restoration may not be tomorrow or even during our earthly journey. Yet, He WILL restore . . . so that all will know that HE is the Lord our God. There is no other.
Oh, what hope we have as children of the Restorer. I am not sure how those who don’t know Him deal with life. Thanks.