We Don’t Have to be Blooming to be Growing
The Valley of the Shadow
“The Lord will surely comfort Zion
and will look with compassion on all her ruins;
He will make her deserts like Eden,
her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.
Joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the sound of singing.”
Isaiah 51:3
I recently started a devotional by Ruth Chou Simons, and the title of this post comes from the introduction of her book. When I read those words last night, they struck me in a powerful way. The quote describes the season I’m walking through right now.
A season with more tears than triumphs, more nights awake than asleep, more heartache than hope. A season in which everything I once held dear seemed to shatter into a million fragments.
Maybe you can relate.
As I wrote in my journal last week:
“Elizabeth Graham Reed Watkins died six weeks ago. A new woman is resurrecting from the shattered remnants. And yet I will not remain a shattered fragment of who I was. No, I will emerge as someone totally new, transformed by the goodness of God, a treasure sealed with gold.”
I don’t share these words because I have everything figured out or because the pain has passed. I share them because I’m learning that even in the midst of brokenness, God is still at work.
If you are walking through a similar season, my prayer is that God will comfort you through His Word, just as He is comforting me. Together, may we find hope in the promise of Isaiah 51:3
“The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.”
Let’s hold on to the possibility that growth can happen even in grief, that beauty can emerge from brokenness, and that one day, singing may once again rise from the midst of sorrow.
We don’t have to be blooming to be growing. Even here, even now, God is not finished with our story.
I dearly love you all.
Elizabeth