Have You Ever

read Joel?

The whole of it, all at once?

It is fairly easy, it is fairly small, but it is packed, as oft the Lord’s words are for those who read them.

I’m no Bible scholar so I will not pretend to be one. But it has spoken so much to me over the years. I know that some think it inappropriate to personalize the stories from the Old Testament that are meant to be a historical telling or prophetic message for a nation.

But I could not help but see it personally. I can not help but continue to see it personally to know in my heart that the locust ate my earlier life.

I opened the gates of protection, I let them on my land and they destroyed all that was there, all that my parents and teachers had planted, all that in my early years I had cared for and nurtured.

The locusts devoured my life and laid it open and wasted, burnt, lifeless, shameful, the stench that rolled off of a life once devoted to God, to my beloved Christ, was high, it lay in complete and utter ruin. All this at my very own hand of carelessness, rebellion and disregard.

But God is truly amazing and He has restored all that was eaten, burned and trampled. All of it and more than what was stolen or given away. The reality of what I brought upon myself was hard to look at, the repentance was not easy or quickly done.

But God was good, “gracious and compassionate” with me. He did not take my life as He would have been so right in doing, instead He held me in His hand and waited for me, “slow to anger and abounding in love.” He waited for me to come to Him, to repent fully and then He began to restore.

He quickly restored beyond what had been given at first to me that I in turn had given to the enemy to destroy. He has heaped far more than I could have ever imagined, far more than I would have ever known to ask for. He has gently but firmly taught me in His ways and continues His instruction. He has renewed my heart and sent bitterness from me. He has gifted me with strength to do the impossible and the undesirable. He has protected me. He has let me see. He has freed me. He has blessed my children, and put a song deep within my heart.

He has indeed restored what the locust had eaten.