Emmanuel…

…God with us.

Not just in control, not just powerful, not simply having our interests in mind. He’s with us. I’m a child by covenant, and now “[He] will take my sorrows, [His] victory is mine.” He doesn’t just number the hairs on my head; He actually carries the deepest heaviness of my heart and inspires the highest moments of joy.

I pondered this after a hymn played, on repeat, in my head:

Whom every grief hath known
That wrings the human breast
And takes and bears them for His own
That all in Him may rest.

Rest.

Last night I was woken by sobbing next to me–Ryan, overcome with the sadness we have carried this week. This morning it lingered in my heart, as it does in so many. And here the Lord spoke to me in that hymn. He spoke, “Rest.”

We stagger under the weight of pain, of trials and tribulation. But our faithful Father, God with us, comes and bears every burden of our heart so that we may simply rest in Him. He takes our sorrows, He wipes away the tears. I can almost see Him bending down and whispering soothing words to my raw heart, “I promise, joy comes in the morning. Soon, soon…” And His compassionate smile, the smile of a Father who cares about my hurt and pain in an unfathomable way, is joy in and of itself.

In the morning all we’ve lost will be restored and then some, but for now, in this night, we have the strong hand of God with us to hold.

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