And I am mourning over blueberries!

Tiny, tiny berries, sturdy new growth all frozen because of last week’s frigid temperatures. I will not pick fresh berries this early summer… and I’m sad.

Tom and I were walking in the state park near us Sunday afternoon. We were shocked to see hundreds of uprooted trees lying helpless on the forest floor, now without purpose or position, due to much rain and the many wind storms that have ravaged this area these last few weeks. These once strong trees now lie where they fell. And I’m sad.

How does one hold on when life topples as quickly as these trees fell?

I am sitting snug and warm this morning, wrapped with blankets of books and family pictures; I look around and… wonder. What if everything were suddenly gone… as the blueberries are? Would I still trust God? I hear Tom making coffee, beginning breakfast, and I smile at the thousands of mornings we have awakened together.

But what if…

… when my comfort place is gone, when treasures are missing, will I voice strong love for my Lord?

I think of the homeless Ukrainian believers; I focus on the faces of the Turkish and Syrian people. I see pictures of the devastation they are walking through today.

What do you grasp when there seems to be nothing on which to hold? When everything is gone? When the room is empty… when the house has collapsed.

An estimated 12.8 million Ukrainians have been displaced, including those to other countries and those relocated within the country. The Ukraine war and other conflicts have pushed the number of people forced to flee conflict, violence and persecution way over the staggering number of 100 million for the first time on record, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

The recent earthquakes in Turkey and Syria added massive numbers to this already astounding figure of the homeless. Thousands and thousands and thousands of homes collapsed in these two countries, leaving multiple peoples uprooted.

The Associated Press, February 19,2023

I understand God’s word speaks of the hope in life a believer has and the truth of “holding on” and enduring. But what about the millions who do not have this hope?  I read the words of a Turkish man who had lost everything in the earthquake… everything. “I have nothing but God.” I pray he is holding to the one God who gives hope and comfort when all of life is up… rooted.

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Habakkuk 3:17,18).  These words were written to a people who had been displaced for 70 years; they were returning home. What would they find, and how would they respond?

When the money is gone, and the grocery shelves are bare, when there is no work and no government assistance… when I am alone. Will I still rejoice in the Lord?

Yes, yes, I know… I am to be at home in my heart, rooted and grounded in God’s sacrificial love…. because of the faith I have in that love. I must believe it will hold me when I am up… rooted.

The apostle Paul prayed, “I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power…” to understand and know just how much God loves us… italics mine. (Ephesians 3:16,17).

To be at home… when my physical home is up… rooted, collapses. When life implodes around me, my inner world is to be at home with Him, secure and rooted.

Forgive me, Lord for not caring, for not even paying attention to the eyes of those up… rooted in the world. I look at every face… I look into these eyes, and I am ashamed that I have fretted…

… over blueberries.

Displaced children in Roe, a temporary site for internally displaced people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo province of Ituri.    UN / Eskinder Debebe