Am I Enough – Job Laments in Hope

Greetings Dear Reader,

I am privileged to live in a century old farm house.  In the yard are some trees that are not quite as old but are very old still.  When we first moved in one of them appeared to be dead and a danger to the house.  It had to be cut down in early fall.  The concern was that it would fall during winter. 

Resurrection Tree - Photo by Natalie Foley

I had plans to put a round table top on it the following spring and use it as an outdoor table for evening suppers and morning writing.  God had other plans.  In spring shoots began to rise from the stump.  At first I thought that some others seeds had taken lease on the top of the winter weathered stump.  I chose to let them grow.

By summers end it was obvious that new branches had sprung from the old stump.  They were a foot tall and had deep green leaves on them.  Over the last five years the branches have grown and the new growth is over ten feet tall.  The stump has a crown of strong limbs that host a bird’s nest and a constant reminder.

Job is in so much emotional and physical pain.  He wants to die.  He also knows that God breathes life back into things that seem dead.  He uses a cut down tree as an example.  He is sure he will die and that he will rot away.  He wants to die because of his loss and pain.  In the midst of his pain you can hear the hope.  You can hear that he knows he will see God after this ordeal is over.

He knows that there is so much more than the short life we have now.  His perspective even in the depths of his suffering is one of the eternal.  He sees beyond it all to hope.  Later we will hear him say is more clearly but like a tree cut down he knows he will sprout again.

It could be that this is why I continue.  I have goals beyond this life.  I have dreams and aspirations after the mortal coil holds me no more.  I jokingly tell God that I want a starship to explore all he has made.  I long to spend time with my Grandfather, my Sister Sarah, and my Daughter Rachel.  They have all gone on ahead of me and the loss of each is constant thread of sorrow in the tapestry of my life.

The current streams of pain weaving through my family will also become part of that tapestry.  I will hold on to hope.  Sorrow does not come to stay.  Hope reminds us that even the dead will rise.  This life is short.  There is so much beyond it.  I just need to hold on to Christ and hope.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."

Job 14:1-22

"A person who is born of a woman is short-lived and is full of trouble.  He comes up like a flower; then he withers. He is like a fleeting shadow; he doesn't stay long.  You observe this and call me to account to you. 

"If only an unclean person could become clean! It's not possible.  If the number of his days and the number of his months are determined by you, and you set his limit, then he cannot go past it.  Look away from him, and he will cease to be.”

“Meanwhile, he loves life as a laborer loves work.  There is hope for a tree when it is cut down. It will sprout again. Its shoots will not stop sprouting.  If its roots grow old in the ground and its stump dies in the soil, merely a scent of water will make it sprout and grow branches like a plant. But a human dies and is powerless. A person breathes his last breath, and where is he?  As water drains out of a lake, or as a river dries up completely, so each person lies down and does not rise until the heavens cease to exist. He does not wake up. He is not awakened from his sleep.  I wish you would hide me in Sheol and keep me hidden there until your anger cools. Set a specific time for me when you will remember me.” 

"If a person dies, will he go on living? I will wait for my relief to come as long as my hard labor continues.  You will call, and I will answer you. You will long for the person your hands have made.  Though now you count my steps, you will not keep a record of my sins.  My disobedience will be closed up in a bag, and you will cover over my sins.   As surely as a mountain falls and rocks are dislodged, so water wears away stone, floods wash away soil from the land, and you destroy a mortal's hope.  You overpower him forever, and he passes away. You change his appearance and send him away.  His sons are honored, and he doesn't know it. Or they become unimportant, and he doesn't realize it.  He feels only his body's pain. He is only worried about himself."