Grace in the Wilderness

 I was pouring over Jeremiah 31 this morning while pondering life and its perplexities. "The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness;"  What? How? How can there be GRACE in the wilderness of all places?! Right now I have friends who are grieving, feeling like the sword has slashed through their lives taking a loved one way too soon. There are so many other situations too, that leave us feeling bewildered, asking why, and wandering bereft in the wilderness. And yet God would have us to find grace there?? Reading on I read, "Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."  And further, "Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built," So God knows we will have times of being broken if He is promising to "build us" again... Verse 9 proclaims, "They shall come with weeping and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble:" God does have a plan, even though it sometimes makes absolutely no sense to us. He knows we will weep, and will struggle to accept the wilderness we find ourselves in. Life on Earth will never be normal; our Garden of Eden is over.  "...and their soul shall be as a watered garden;" God CAN give us rivers of grace to fill up those parched places and heal our broken hearts if we choose to turn to Him. And when life is finally "back to normal" and we are at home in Heaven with our Father, "they shall not sorrow any more at all." 

(The thought of the Garden of Eden being life on earth's "normal" is credited to Allen Miller.)