----------------------------------------------
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him." Lamentations3:22-24
The book of Lamentations, written by Jeremiah in aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, is a gut-wrenching exploration of pain. It consists of 5 poems that have been composed with each stanza starting with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
The poem explores the terribly sad circumstances as thoroughly as possible. It is as though Jeremiah needed to document the horror of what had happened. It is in the middle poem, where the stanzas are longer that we find the bottom line: God's love cannot be defeated by pain.
There is no denying the reality of the pain. The thorough "documentation" of this pain in Lamentations in no way tries to belittle the extent of the pain and loss, but Jeremiah discovers that pain does not have the last say.
God's love is stronger than pain - our problems don't disappear, but we are carried through our loss and sustained in our struggle, we are sustained in our journey even if we can't see the end of the shadowy valley.
The powerful image he connects to is that of a new morning. Sometimes the new morning comes with a stunning sunrise, sometimes it comes in a fairly bland way, other times we can't even see it behind the mist and the rain - but it comes!
In the midst of our pain and loss, let us wait for the Lord!
---
--------------------------
Theo Groeneveld theo@gracepresby.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
