YET

Habakkuk.
hmm. funny word. sounds like something a animal might quack out. It's not an animal cackle, it's a book in the Old Testament. Root word in Hebrew meaning "embrace." Well that's much prettier isn't it?

It's a short book, 3 chapters..2 & an inkblot pages long in my bible wedged between Nahum and Zephaniah (haha, now that word sounds like a sneeze...God Bless You). I don't have a recollection of ever reading this. I found it to be full. Habakkuk was a prophet, a countryman of Judah. Basically he is asking God some really straight up questions like 'Where you at...when are you gonna show up...how long...why are you runnin the show this way?' And God responds by saying basically 'watch what I do and be amazed, wait, and I'll handle it in my time and way.' My favorite part was at the end where Habakkuk says "YET I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior." He's like..."even though fig trees don't bud and the vines are grapeless and the pens are sheepless and all the cows have taken a vacation which means no hamburgers for Friday night dinners...Yet everything around me is all dried up...and it doesn't make sense...I rejoice." I love the word YET in the passage. Yet all this...I don't care...whatever...I trust you Lord. FAITH. good stuff. Pretty sure we can all learn a lesson from that and apply it to our life. I tell myself...suck it up and rejoice...I don't have to understand now...the beauty of it all is YET to come!

"His splendor was like the sunrise; rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden." ~Habakkuk 3:4
 

This reminded me of a painting I did a while back when I was 'searching' for the Lord. I painted a hand with rays flashing out from it. Didn't know what all the images and thoughts in my head meant at the time and still don't completely. I remember I felt a battle between my mind and my heart and the only way I could explain it was to paint it. God was saying...'stop thinking so much...stop trying to make sense of everything and analyze me and life...just believe and all will be added to you.' Hence the cross jabbing through the brain in the painting....the battle. It's like I couldn't walk up those steps through the door to see the otherside until I LET GO and just trusted Him with everything. Then I had eyes to see what I had been trying to figure out the whole time. Jesus was the bridge, the key, the connecting point to the mystery of this power to live free and understand.

 Anywho...when I was reading this scripture in Habakkuk on Monday it triggered a memory of the hand I painted. The next morning I was teaching my preschool art class and we were making Australian hand print paintings where they would make lines or 'rays' coming from their hand and the scripture popped in my head.  And a funny added bonus last night...a slide show of pictures arrived on my computer screen saver...and the second photo...there it was...the painting.
Back then I didn't understand who Jesus was YET...or how he was/is connected to everything in my life, in the universe, in all creation. I was like Chapter 1 & 2 Habakkuk...asking questions...trying to get answers from God...about what was going on around me and inside me...challenging and questioning what I didn't get or what didn't make sense to my human mind or worldly views I had collected on my shelf along with intellect and experiences...I let those things define who God was to me instead of letting God reveal to me who He really is. Oh what a lengthy mistake I dragged with me all those years. The truth was sitting under my nightstand in a green covered book entitled "Holy Bible" which made me cringe back then everytime I thought about opening it. The mysterious power...this power that flashes in rays from God's hand, I realized I never let penetrate my heart...I only looked at it from afar like a firework show. How much more dazzeling to be in the sky right next to the lights. It took the Chapter 3 Habakkuk perspective to open my eyes. Throw up my hands. Rejoice, have faith in the unknown...have faith in Jesus Christ and trust who the word says He is, who God says he is...and just believe that...then wait...and watch...and be utterly amazed. And so I did...and I was amazed...and I still am...and I continue to be...flash by flash...yet by yet.

"For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."~Colossians 3:3

HIDDEN...with Christ...in God...
Like in the earlier scripture ...'rays flashed from his hand, where his power was HIDDEN." ~Habakkuk 3:4

God's power is hidden in His hand...Christ is in God's hand, He is the power...and we who put our faith in Christ and lose our lives for him...this mysterious faith...are hidden with him...in God's hand.

Habakkuk.

EMBRACE.




DAILY DOSE

Okay so this is neither here nor there. Just some funny things the kids did today. This is a class of 3 and 4 year olds so you can imagine the ridiculousness that takes place in that room.

*QUESTION: What snack did you bring today?
  ANSWER: Gram-crappers.

* A little boy had a costume horse head on today. He paced back and forth walking towards the wall...touching it with his horse nose...then pivot turned and paced about 15 feet touching the horse nose to the room support beam...over and over he repeated the process over and over. I watched him for a good minute.