HOPE IN THE VALLEY

After six days in the hospital we were finally home. My sissy had flown out to help both Jake and me. Our neighbors had organized dinners for us, another one provided a blow up mattress for my sissy, Jake’s friends were coming over and taking him out for fun times….but the depression came. As Jake cried out to me “ Mom I have been stripped of everything…my job, my ability to walk, my dignity…I can’t do anything”. And he was right. He is now in the valley, with no set time when he will recover, and if so, what will his new norm look like. The valley can be a very desolate place, with no color, no path, no hope. The Israelites experienced this same valley, only it was a desert that was intentionally designated for them to wander for forty years. Why? Because it is in this place where God would test them, to see if they would TRUST him with everything in their life BEFORE He brought them into the promised land. One morning, while my sissy and I were walking Miley in the park, we were completely surprised when, out of nowhere, we saw this fluorescent green on the colorless ground..and it moved! It was the most vibrant colored birds, with orange faces and blue tails. And when they flew back into the trees their wings shined with such beauty it took our breath away. They are called rosey faced love birds. It was at that moment God shared this message to me; Though Jake and others are in this Valley of what seems depressing and stripped of everything they once had or hoped for, I will bring to them HOPE once again…a land flowing with milk and honey…vibrant colors on a colorless path…to deepen their roots of trust for ME…but the length of time in the Valley will depend on them. The choice is ours. Will we embrace the Valley and allow God to show us His purpose, His faithfulness? Or, like the Israelites, will we fight the Valley, and wander for what seems like forever? It will be a daily choice, an hourly choice, and sometimes, a minute to minute choice….but, like the surprise of the rosey faced love birds who came upon us in the middle of a desert, God WILL be with us…in the Valley….showing up when we need Him the most…The question is “ What will you choose?” The continual wandering in the Valley or the coming home to the Promised Land?