Thursday, October 11, 2012

For all I have lost

The Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away
Blessed be the name of the Lord.....
.... job 1:21

This was my reading for today. The Matthew Henry commentary says that this verse, according to the original, can also read, "...the Lord gave. Bless his name. The Lord taketh away. Bless his name..." Something about that really strikes me. In other words,
1).....bless the Lord when he gives, bless the Lord when he takes away.
OR
2).... bless the Lord for what he gives, bless the Lord for what he takes away.
Ok the first one I get. Yet will I praise him. We praise him in the storm. No matter what we still bless him
But the second one... hmmm.... the Lord takes away. And then our response is not confined to despair and questioning. To grudgingly bring ourselves to 'thank the Lord'. But to actually give a positive response. To actually be happy about it. Not in spite of it. Or through it. Or in it. But FOR it. You see, because if we are thankful for the what he has taken away, it ceases to be something removed, something lost. There is no longer a storm.
Then I look at the next chapter...
... shall we receive good from the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil...
I think of the things I have lost. Those that I held dear. Those that I loved. Can I actually thank God for losing them?
Is it possible that I am so wrapped up in my God that the giving and the taking away no longer matters.
That I can receive loss with the same mind that I do gain.
That I am so focused on the giver of it all that I lose sight of what happens around me.
The giving. And the taking away. All as one.
I still bless his name.
Not for all that I have gained.
But for all that I have lost.

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