We know so little of God.

I slog through the Old Testament searching for Him in all of the details of His law, even though He seems fierce and unapproachable there. He seems very far away. But if I am His follower, I must see Him as He is, not as I want Him to be. I must seek to learn all of Him and not just the parts that make me feel comfortable and loved. He is so much bigger than that–His thoughts and plans so much higher than the little I know of them.

He is all in all, and I am just a vapor. A breath and a heartbeat and a story.

Some of the greatest stories are found in the Old Testament, right in the middle of all the hard-to-undestand. From the beginning, He reveals Himself in the stories.

That is where we learn of His gentle heart. Where we observe His perfect providences. Where we grow confident in His overwhelming power and are surprised again and again by His steadfast love.

Every line speaks His name.

My daughter gave me a beautiful flowering plant to hang on my front porch, and its cheerful red encouraged me. But one morning when I pulled it down to water it, I noticed a nest filled with eggs and a mother bird flying nervously around me. So I left it and slowly it withered. Later we watched through the window as the mama fed and cared for her babies.

I’m sure others wondered why we left the dead plant hanging.

Eventually the birds grew enough to fly off, and I set the plant out back to be thrown away. But my husband saw it and patiently pulled away all of the dead leaves and flowers. He added some fresh, good soil. He watered it and set in in the sun.

And in just a few days it was green and vibrant and beginning to flower again.

I felt the hope of it deep in my soul.

A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; Isaiah 42:3-4

God whispers life into the bruised and battered reed. He trims the faintest, flickering light. He doesn’t toss His children aside or grown faint with the growing of them.

He tenderly removes the deadness and gives just what is needed.

How I love His heart!

How I cherish the reviving of His people.

And if you are crushed today? Bruised and broken? Smoldering and sputtering? Lifeless and dull?

The Almighty God is a tender Gardener. He knows all the ways to help you grow green again.

He is the Creator, and you are His workmanship.

He holds your story.

He makes all things beautiful in His time.

For the LORD hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are prisoners. Psalm 69:33

All things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Colossians 3:16b-17

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Ecclesiastes 3:11