the child of Job

“At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door.
We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in.”
C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

(a freshly watered pansy / Julie Cook / 2021)

As the hours of a daunting day tic by, one after another…
the ever-growing heaviness and weight from those most difficult hours
rudely bears down unforgivably upon the shoulders of the weary.

Insult to injury is the name of the game.

Hearts break.
Tears flow.
As raw emotions are flayed wide open…salt pours freely over naked flesh.
And all the while, an increasing sense of emptiness spreads like a raging fire
across a parched and barren land.

We find ourselves crawling along a dusty floor, simply hoping to collapse
in an overlooked darkened corner…alone and achingly ignored.
Rejected and lost, we lick our wounds before we longingly close our eyes.

Please Lord, just make it all go away…
echos the cry of the child of Job.

And yet, just like that…
the darkness mysteriously wanes.

Inch by inch, second by second, measure by measure,
the long endless night of the soul gives way to the light
of a glorious new day.
Giving way to a blessed new beginning.

Light vanquishes the empty void.
Hope trumps the seemingly accepted dejection
as our God proclaims victory over our loneliness.

Hell is now overcome.
God has had His say.

Loneliness…
Brokenness…
Emptiness…
Rejection…

All of which has been overcome..

God the Omnipotent has had His say…
and His is both the first and the last of all words.

And the child of Job can now rejoice.

“Know that our faith is strengthened by the resurrection of Christ.
The passion of Christ represents the misery of our present life,
while the resurrection of Christ gives us a brilliant glimpse of the happiness
of the future life.
Let us apply ourselves energetically in the present life,
and hope in the future.
Now is the time for painful struggle; then will come the recompense.
Those who are lazy about carrying out their work will be brazenly impudent
if they expect the recompense.”
St. Augustine, p. 61