blessing

I recently talked to someone about brokenness. The conversation reminded me of a passage I’ve turned to several times in my life when experiencing this. Here it is:

“Come, let us return to the LORD.
He has torn us to pieces
   but he will heal us;
he has injured us
   but he will bind up our wounds.
 After two days he will revive us;
   on the third day he will restore us,
   that we may live in his presence.
-Hosea 6:1-2

When I found this several years ago, I remember being wowed. It described brokenness so well. One of the conclusions I always come to when experiencing brokenness is the fact that it comes from God. Every single experience in this life filters through the hand of God. That thought makes God seem tough, yet every time I’ve experienced brokenness, I always find myself in the arms of a tender Savior where healing is experienced deeper than the wound was inflicted. He becomes all satisfying. He tears and then He heals. He injures and then He binds up the wounds. He revives and restores. And in the end I find myself alive in His presence.

This all ties into my “thought for the day”. Besides this conversation I referred to, I also heard some really good news this week. The kind of news that makes me excited. I think one of the reasons I was so excited is that this news came after a season of waiting and probably brokenness. This got me thinking about God’s blessings. I wonder if I would have been as excited had I not known about the wait that preceded this news. I began to think how the wait or the season of brokenness does something to us. It gives us an avenue to experience dependence on our Savior and therefore we encounter Him. We leave seasons of brokenness knowing personally the One who healed us. So that led to this thought: Blessing is so much more richly enjoyed when we know the One who bestows it.

Sometimes I get stuck in the fact that God brings difficulties to refine us and never enter into the overwhelming reality that He also blesses us. Yes, He’s in the business of making us holy. And within that He is also in the business of expressing His love. God is pleased when we turn our face to Him, when we acknowledge Him, and desire Him. It pleases Him to bring us closer to holiness, it pleases Him to reveal Himself to us so that we might know Him, and it pleases Him to bless us. I’ve been humbled by the blessing that I heard about. Humbled that God would turn His face, hear the calling out, and choose to graciously grant desires in order to bless His children. Awesome!