Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Shade Tree Wisdom 12/31/13


          Well, honestly now, how has it been?  Nothing that was simply too much for your puny strength, and the Lord did provide as He promised.  There were some disappointments, every life has them, doesn’t it?

          I would turn you to an ancient bit of wisdom from the prophet Habakkuk. You don’t often go there, do you?  But he sounds really modern in his questions to God.  He learns that the Lord planned to use an ancient power, the nation of Babylon, heathen to the extreme, to punish Israel, a godly nation, and he struggles with that concept.

          It’s something like the life we are living when it often seems as if the wrong remains unpunished, and the good is not recognized.  St. Peter in his letters warned that such events will come.  Jesus reminded us, “In the world you will have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” John 16,33.

          So Habakkuk ends his chapters with these hopeful words:
Even if the fig tree does not bloom and the vines have no grapes, even if the olive tree fails to produce and the fields yield no food, even if the sheep pen is empty and the stalls have no cattle-
18even then, I will be happy with the LORD.  I will truly find joy in God, who saves me.
19The LORD Almighty is my strength.  He makes my feet like those of a deer.  He makes me walk on the mountains.  For the choir director; on stringed instruments.
Let us then take heart and trust in Him who is our God and Savior.

GPD 12/31/13

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