Our Yesterdays

“This shall be the sign for you…Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward…The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” Isaiah 37:30-32

Judah had been attacked viciously and their lives were completely devastated. I’ll bet they felt as if things would never be the same. Time marched on and nothing ever got better. Just like us when trauma occurs, they had no idea when or if normalcy would ever return. The Lord was gracious to Isaiah by giving him a sign of future delivery, promising a return to previous blessings they had lost. God still encourages us with His comfort and promises of a good life up ahead. This is the time of year when our family’s sensitivity is on high alert. I don’t plan for it…I don’t dwell on it…I don’t go searching for it...but it always finds me. It is likened to the time I severely rolled my ankle creating such an injury it would be over a year before I could walk without discomfort. Many months into the injury I would forget the compromised foot, until I would make a certain move and it would send great pain through my body. It was a reminder that I had an injury and things were not as they had been.

March is that injured foot for our family for it is the month that holds the days when my dad and sister shed their compromised bodies for their spiritual ones. For me, the first few weeks of the month seem like strolling through a cemetery, visiting grave-site after grave-site. ‘This day marked the day that as my sister laid in her bed unreachable, she was already reaching for Heaven.’ ‘That day marked the day Daddy went into the Hospice House and slipped quietly out of this life and stepping into the next.’ The stroll goes on and on until March 19 at which point all activities on earth for them were finished.

God’s assurance for Judah is the same assurance for us when dealing with heartbreaking circumstances that flow into our lives. His message promises that He will bring life on the other side of devastation. ‘The hard truth is there’s no real going back. But once we get up again, there can be a going forward…Just finding normalcy again can be fingerprints of the supernatural. Unwanted changes occur. Crises happens. Catastrophes invade…the pleasant field that once surrounded us has been scorched…You don’t want to grow something new. You want to return to your old life. You want those exact clusters of grapes, not new ones. But in time, God can make all things new and finding fruitfulness again will make more difference than you can imagine. If we can’t have our treasured yesterdays back, at least tomorrow can matter.’ Chasing Vines, Beth Moore, p.196-197. I’ve said so many times that if I cannot have my dad back, I am honored to have Ben, my mother’s husband. God indeed has given us a new normal and it is very good. When we drop to our knees in prayer, we are taking the root downward, and God will be faithful to bear fruit upward.

Whatever you are facing this morning, take the time to grieve, take the prayers to God and allow Him to transform the old into the new…the past into the present…the promise into the healing. God uses everything from our yesterdays to create beauty in our tomorrows.