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Writer. Teacher. Scripture-Digger.

The Weary World Rejoices

I stitched Jonathan’s name on his stocking last night and carefully tucked it up right there next to his brother’s when it was finished. And I glanced back to look at them all lined up like that and the tears welled up instantly. I know I’ve already said it, but I think the hardest part of Christmas decorating for me in those ten years of delayed fertility was the stockings. Our two always looked so lonely hanging up there alone, that very same mantle suddenly cavernously larger and gapingly empty. “I know,” I would think then, in an unspoken commiseration with the inanimate mantle. “I feel the same way.” This mantle has quietly observed the full rollercoaster of most of the last 15 years (save those Maui dream-years). It’s perfectly angled to face the kitchen table where I spent morning by morning digging and wrestling and asking the hard questions and finding Spirit-solace in the wait. It was in perfect view of my weeping-into-the-carpet that morning that God told me He wasn’t going to heal Shawna and that my job for the next six months was to pray her into heaven. And it provided the fire-glow in the first weeks after her death when Josh and I pushed the couches together to make a bed and watched a Batman marathon of movies on Christmas Eve, just the two of us. It looked on as I walked through the garage door for the first time after we moved home with a toddler and a swollen, pregnant belly. And again as we walked through the front door with our second miracle babe. It has tiny handprints on its glass and paint splatters on its hearth and proudly carries the weight of those four stockings after silently watching me carry the years-long weight of wishing for them.

This year, it holds our two sons’. And next year, it will also hold our baby girl’s. But, friend, regardless of how your mantle looks, we can rejoice in this one, miraculous & marvelous truth, in waiting or in fullness: to you and to me, a Son is born. To you and to me a Son is given. His name is Wonderful. Counselor. Mighty God. Everlasting Father. Prince of Peace. And The God Who Sees … so much more than your fireplace mantle could possibly ever observe.

So this weary world? It can rejoice.

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The Weary World Rejoices

December 20, 2019

I stitched Jonathan’s name on his stocking last night and carefully tucked it up right there next to his brother’s when it was finished. And I glanced back to look at them all lined up like that and the tears welled up instantly. I know I’ve already said it, but I think the hardest part of Christmas decorating for me in those ten years of delayed fertility was the stockings. Our two always looked so lonely hanging up there alone, that very same mantle suddenly cavernously larger and gapingly empty. “I know,” I would think then, in an unspoken commiseration with the inanimate mantle. “I feel the same way.” This mantle has quietly observed the full rollercoaster of most of the last 15 years (save those Maui dream-years). It’s perfectly angled to face the kitchen table where I spent morning by morning digging and wrestling and asking the hard questions and finding Spirit-solace in the wait. It was in perfect view of my weeping-into-the-carpet that morning that God told me He wasn’t going to heal Shawna and that my job for the next six months was to pray her into heaven. And it provided the fire-glow in the first weeks after her death when Josh and I pushed the couches together to make a bed and watched a Batman marathon of movies on Christmas Eve, just the two of us. It looked on as I walked through the garage door for the first time after we moved home with a toddler and a swollen, pregnant belly. And again as we walked through the front door with our second miracle babe. It has tiny handprints on its glass and paint splatters on its hearth and proudly carries the weight of those four stockings after silently watching me carry the years-long weight of wishing for them.

This year, it holds our two sons’. And next year, it will also hold our baby girl’s. But, friend, regardless of how your mantle looks, we can rejoice in this one, miraculous & marvelous truth, in waiting or in fullness: to you and to me, a Son is born. To you and to me a Son is given. His name is Wonderful. Counselor. Mighty God. Everlasting Father. Prince of Peace. And The God Who Sees … so much more than your fireplace mantle could possibly ever observe.

So this weary world? It can rejoice.

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This has been sitting as a draft for months. Today, it needed to be shared.

Battle cries for waiting women: take what you need, share with the person you immediately think of. That’s usually God telling you they need to read it, too.
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1. Did you know that one of the primary Hebrew words for “mercy” in the Bible means, simply, “womb”? You can see it for yourself in action in Nehemiah 9:19’s “mercies” and Isaiah 46:3’s “womb.” Both are the same Hebrew word, raham, which describes a deep love that is rooted in a natural bond. So, if you are a woman who is waiting for God to fill your womb? Know, as you wait, that He carries you in His.
2. If you’ve already been waiting for what feels like forever and you aren’t quite sure your faith can handle much more, good news: it doesn’t have to. Just hang onto hope for today. His womb-mercies are brand new to (literally) carry you afresh tomorrow.
3. If nothing else, you can rejoice in this: Today, you are one day closer to your miracle.
4. But, if not? He is still good.
5. This is hard. The waiting is crushing. It might not be well with you now, but it will be, eventually (because, Romans 8:28).
6/7/8. Psalm 90 is directly from Moses’ mouth, and the oldest of the Psalms. The man (and the people he led) knew affliction and suffering in a way we can’t even begin to imagine. Psalm 90:15 has long been a beacon for me, a proportionate prayer of faith that God would balance the weight of my waiting scales with the same amount of gladness after.
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“Make us glad in proportion to the days in which You have afflicted us,” Moses prayed in Psalm 90:15-16 AMPC, “and to the years in which we have suffered evil.” And then, as one last tacked-on faith cry, when those glad days come? “Let Your glorious majesty be revealed to my children.”
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Yes, God. We believe for it.

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Open post by jane_johnson with ID 18072949472005136

From one “in the thick of it” woman to another.

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Open post by jane_johnson with ID 18062875346168437

From one “in the thick of it” woman to another.

If Ezra 4 tells us anything, it’s that it’s ALWAYS when you get to the most critical work of your God-spoken, Spirit-stirred calling that trouble comes calling. And Satan won’t quit until he tears it all back down to rubble.
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Keep your wings up. Satan can try to convince you it’s all useless, but remember Isaiah 55:10-11. God’s purpose will always be accomplished.

Wings up, buttercup.

105 0

Open post by jane_johnson with ID 18013021154685324

If Ezra 4 tells us anything, it’s that it’s ALWAYS when you get to the most critical work of your God-spoken, Spirit-stirred calling that trouble comes calling. And Satan won’t quit until he tears it all back down to rubble.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Keep your wings up. Satan can try to convince you it’s all useless, but remember Isaiah 55:10-11. God’s purpose will always be accomplished.

Wings up, buttercup.

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