This is actually a devotional that my wife did for our church, but I wanted to share it because I thought it was very encouraging:
“You have seen me tossing and turning through the night. You have collected all my tears and preserved them in your bottle! You have recorded every one in your book.” ~Psalm 56:8 TLB
“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” ~Lamentations 3:21-24 ESV
The day before we left to drive Emma to college, I read a devotional by John Eldridge in which he wrote about his youngest son graduating from high school. He said this:
“…I was on the brink of sobbing shamelessly. How is this not just loss? my heart cried to God. Tell me—how is everything not just loss? At that moment, everything felt like loss. Jesus replied immediately, Oh, John—nothing is lost.
He continued a little further down the devotion, saying that Jesus showed him something like this:
“When the kingdom comes, my dear, heartbroken friend, nothing that was precious to you in this life will be lost. No memory, no event, none of your story or theirs, nothing is lost. How could it be lost? It is all held safe in the heart of the infinite God, who encompasses all things. Held safe outside of time in the treasuries of the kingdom, which transcends yet honors all time.”
I am in a season of loss—many doors are closing and a well-known and well-loved season is coming to an end. But I know that nothing placed in the care of our Heavenly Father is lost. I have sadness because nothing will be the same as it was, but I have hope because the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases and His mercies are never-ending and new every morning.
In this broken world, good things have to come to an end in order to make space for new good things to grow. Sometimes that places us squarely in a barren season and we wonder if anything good will ever grow again. But as I continue to bring everyone and everything to God in prayer, He keeps it all safe within His good plan: even when I can’t see a good outcome yet; even when all I feel is pain; even when all that I know has changed.
And there is an eternity and a restoration of all things that we can look forward to—knowing that one day we will be perfected in His presence and, in that place, good will last forever and there will be no barren seasons. Nothing is lost in Jesus. His resurrection promises an eternal spring when and where all things are made new. Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!
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