Does the tension of this life ever suck the wind from your lungs, rob your sleep, or dull your hope?
Life is lived in the liminal space between;
Love and hate.
Comfort and pain.
Hope and despair.
Health and disease.
Peace and war.
Humility and pride.
Belonging and isolation.
Vulnerability and shame-filled hiding.
To be human is to know what it feels like to have the tension of this world trying to uproot the tender, vulnerable, soft places of our hearts-minds-bodies; those places where Hope, Faith & Love dwell.
Might the tension once and for all be snatched from the living, breathing parts of us? Here, in this questioning place, we find Christ beckoning us to His side, inviting us to raise our lament to Him. A way of grasping ahold of hope in the face of our sufferings, like Jacob, clinging to our Heavenly Father and crying out for a blessing.
"How deserted lies the city, once so full of people. How like a widow is she who once was great among the nations...Bitterly she weeps at night, tears upon her cheeks, she finds no resting place." Excerpts of Lamentations 1
"I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because my children and infants faint in the streets of the city...Oh daughters and sons of Zion your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you? The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let your tears flow like a river day and night." Excerpts of Lamentations 2
"YET, this I call to mind and therefore I have HOPE.
Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed; for his compassions never fail.
The are new every morning- GREAT IS YOUR FAITHFULNESS. I say to myself, 'The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.'" Excerpts from Lamentations 3
And so we wait, beloved. With tears flowing like a river day and night, we wait. We wait in this tension between Christ born unto us as a little babe and Christ returning unto us as a conquering protector. And what do we wait for with tears flowing like a river day and night?
"Then the angel showed me the River of the Water of Life as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life...and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the lamb will be in the city. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. there will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light and they will reign forever and ever."
Excerpts from Revelation 22
Beloved, take heart.
All those tears - day and night - are collected by your loving, compassionate Jesus, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He says in Psalms 56:8 He collects them in a jar - He records our laments - and someday - dear one...
We will sit beside the River of Life and watch as the little babe of Nazareth, now Savior-Redeemer-Healer - gently pours our river of tears he's collected into that river of life and we are forever healed of our sorrows, pain, shame, fear, despair, unmet longings....and ALL WILL BE MADE RIGHT.
So let us wait with hope. Let us keep loving as He loved. Let us keep turning our tear streaked faces towards His face. Let us keep reminding each other of this grand story, of Christ born unto us, and with every tear that falls, every rivulet of the river of waiting within us, know that our Hope is in the Lord and all things made new.
With Hope,
Rachel Griebel