The Wilderness
“I will lead you into the wilderness and speak tenderly to you.” That’s from the book of Hosea in the Old Testament of the Bible, but I feel it could just as easily have been written to me. I feel this truth at a deep, soul level. There are seasons, sometimes long ones, where the Lord leads us to the wilderness. Not because he is angry with us or because he wants to harm us. Quite the opposite. He leads us there to remind us he is with us. Emmanuel, God with us.
I came across this quote the other day and found it both beautiful and true. Ann Voskamp has written that, “We are not spared of all trials, but we are always spared of trials that have no gifts. God always gives God. We can always have as much of God as we want. What is stretching Mary’s skin is God and what is always stretching us is God.”
This is so beautiful and hauntingly true. I realized the other day that one of my biggest goals as a mother is to show my children beauty. To help them find joy in discovering new and unique skills.
Then I realized that exposing them to great literature, culture, music, and theater is all really a faint attempt at pointing them to the Creator. What I am really doing in showing them all of this, is helping them see glimpses of him. And as hard as the wilderness can be, that’s what it does for me as well. It allows me to see in part, what I will one day see in full. 1 Corinthians 13:12 tells us, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
As I seek to show my children the glory of God magnified through his creation, what I really desire is to show them more of him. What I desire for myself as our family wanders through the wilderness, is more of Jesus, less of us. May our children always see that when we walk through the wilderness, we do not do it alone.
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