El Shaddai

Michael Card – El Shaddai - Joy In The Journey Album Version
Michael Card – El Shaddai - Joy In The Journey Album Version

My heart is full as I write this post. I am listening to one of my favorite Christian musical artists. His name is Michael Card, and his worship has led me in some of the most intense, intimate worship experiences of my life. He worships our Lord in a tender, powerfully moving way, and it never fails to bring me closer to the heart of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Today I looked at beautiful wedding pictures of one of my most treasured friends. This woman has endured a lifetime of loss that many of us would not begin to understand, much less accept with the grace and sweetness with which M. has embraced it. For more than two decades, after losing her beloved husband, and the father of their two young daughters, in a horrifying airplane accident while on deployment, my friend raised those baby girls up to their adulthood, worked long hours as a nurse, and kept their home warm, safe, lovely, and nurturing. I only got to visit her once, many years ago, but the memory of how she welcomed me and my daughter in, the instant "click" of recognition that sparked between our two souls, has remained sharp and clear in the time since we met. God blessed M. recently with the gift of an unexpected romance, a surprise blessing that came to her when she least expected it. An old friend of her late husband's, a friend who had kept tabs on her and the girls for many years to make sure that they were safe and thriving, this friend reconnected with my friend, and lo and behold, God did a mighty, magnificent thing and transformed their strong friendship into a love that culminated in lovely daughters dressed in pale pink frocks, bouquets in hand, as they stood beside their beautiful mother, who married again after years of life as a widow.

Looking at their pictures, I cried. I cried because my heart was too full to keep my joy inside. I cried because of the amazing story of restoration and renewal that their wedding symbolized. I wept at the story she shared...the story of how God in His tender grace brought this man to her, and joined their hearts and lives together so that, once more, she could know the glory and unity of a holy marriage, set about and anointed by the Father that they both share. It reminded me that, for each of us, there is room for a second grace. Or a third, fourth, fiftieth.

There is always a redemption, a restoring, a renewing of the dreams that we thought we'd lost forever. Crushed beneath the hustle and bustle of lives crammed so full of this world, our once-shining hopes, wishes, and heart-dreams can easily wilt, fade, and seem to die once and for all. And yet, because we serve a God Who makes the impossible possible, a Maker Who longs to see those innocent visions turn into bright shiny realities, we can keep our hope alive. We can see beauty arise from ashes, and find ourselves joyous, even yet, after our time of mourning.

I don't know where you are when you read this. I don't know if you are lonely, if you are frightened, if you are discouraged or in utter despair. Maybe you are in peace, maybe you have great joy, and maybe you are living your deepest dreams. Either way, I would like to encourage us all with this gentle reminder: our God is ABLE. He is able to keep us. He is able to take the broken, crushed, ripped, torn places in our lives, and change them into beauty like we have never imagined. There is still time, and He is still GOD, and because of that, we can, even now, see hope where there has been only darkness. I pray for light and peace to shine in your world, straight from Him, this day!