December 18

December 18 –The Lord Restores Our Joy Like Streams in the Desert

READ

Psalm 126:1–6 – “Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy.” 

DEVOTION

I remember when the Magic Eye books first became popular.  Any fan of 1990s nostalgia will instantly recall these books filled with computer generated pictures that looked like a bunch of nothingness at first glance.  

We were told if we stared long enough an image would appear.   

When I first came across a Magic Eye book, I tried and I tried and I tried.  I stared and I squinted until I had a headache.  I couldn’t see any images.  I thought it was some kind of joke.  I thought people were lying.  Or, at best, I thought people were believing they saw something because they had been told it was there.  

Then one day it happened for me too.  As I stared at a page, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but… Boxing kangaroos!  

“I see!  I see!  Everything suddenly has become clear!”    

Before my eyes shifted, the page was just stuff.  But once the shift occurred, the hidden image was revealed to me.  

When we endure a prolonged season of sorrow or trouble, it can feel sort of like staring at a Magic Eye image.  If there is something deeper to be seen, we may not be able to discern what that something is.  

The Jewish nation had spent 70 years exiled in Babylon, away from their homeland.  Psalm 126 describes the emotions these people felt when those 70 years were over and they were able to come back home.  Their hearts were suddenly filled with the kind of joy that felt like fresh water streaming into a desert land.

And they learned a valuable lesson about waiting on the Lord: “Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy.” (Psalm 126:5)

The season of Advent is an opportunity for us to engage in the discipline of waiting.  God’s people in Scripture had seasons where they waited for deliverance, including the deliverance brought by Jesus the Messiah.  Similarly, we wait today for the ultimate deliverance Jesus will bring when he returns.  

When we engage in waiting through the days leading up to Christmas, it mirrors our waiting for our current sorrows to end.  But because of Jesus, the picture begins to have clarity.  Waiting through hardships takes on meaning.  All of our current tears will one day be replaced with shouts of joy.

REFLECT

What current situation that you are facing perhaps looks like a meaningless out-of-focus picture to you?  How might it bring you joy today to know your current season of waiting will ultimately result in joy?

PRAY

Thank you, Father for seasons of waiting.  Just as I wait this month for the day on which I will celebrate the earthly arrival of your Son Jesus in Bethlehem, I also wait for a future celebration when He returns.  Please allow me to experience deep and abiding joy in my waiting – the kind I know I will also have when the waiting is over.