From Devastation to Celebration

Read: Zephaniah 3: 14-20

Despair. Overwhelming grief. Confusion. Shock. Fear. These are but a few of the feelings of ancient Israel in this passage from Zephaniah. These feelings are present because the land of Israel has been overrun and Israel lays devestated. There was little to be hopeful for and the overwhelming feeling was that God had abandoned them. Life as they knew it would never be the same and without divine intervention would continue to spiral out of control.

How often does that describe our life? How often do we feel despair or overwhelming grief? I'm guessing many of us have known those emotions. I'm also going to guess that we have had those times when we feel as if God has abandoned us. To say these times are not fun would be an understatement. Indeed, they leave us teetering on the brink of faith and despair.

These times usually give utterance to one of the most yearning questions of faith:  why? Why does God allow these things to happen? Why does God allow God's people to feel despair or overwhelming grief or leave them teetering on the brink. In reading the first two chapters of Zephaniah, we find out why God allowed such things to happen to Israel. Israel had, essentially, forsaken God and had fallen away from their special relationship with God. Israel was more concerned with "fitting in" with the neighboring tribes and nations that they forgot all about their covenant with God. As a result, God had to get their attention and direct them back to God. Perhaps that is what God does with us: try to get our attention and direct us back toward God. There is a pithy saying about God not giving us more than we can handle; I'm not a huge fan of this saying because it portrays God as some mean bully. Instead, we can acknowledge the presence of evil in the world and the attempts by the forces of evil to sway us in our faith. In short, there are times when our feelings of despair are the attempts by evil forces to get us to turn away from God.

No matter what the circumstances surrounding the despair and feelings of devastation, God has a word of hope and grace.  God declares to Isreal and to us that God will "remove our sorrows", is "mighty to save",and God will "rejoice over us with singing". God's promise is this: God will NEVER leave us abandoned or orphaned and God will continually turn our sorrow into joy and our devastation into celebration.  This is the message of Christmas. In Christ, God has restored our joy and transformed our brokenness and heartache into overflowing joy.

As you go about these days, I want to invite you to reflect upon God's promises, remembering that God is faithful to God's promises. I want to invite you to praise God for the promises already fulfilled and ask God for the fulfill those promises you are waiting on to be fulfilled. May God bless you as you wait in remembrance and expecation of the celebration of God's fulfilled promises.