Combine dating Part II

Harvest is over-the bins are full and we are all tucked in for a long winter ahead of us. I love this time of year. It comes just in time for the Holidays-time to relax and focus on celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas. There is SO much to be thankful for this year-I can't count the ways our family has been blessed.

Sunday School was a blessing this week. Everyone shared how God has been MERICFUL to them this year. PSALM 136... "His Mercy Endureth forever." That phrase is repeated 26 times. Notice it doesn't say his LOVE endures forever...or his COMPASSION, FAITHFULNESS (which all those qualities do endure forever!) But... here it says that...IT IS HIS MERCY THAT ENDURES FOREVER.

isn't that what we ultimately need from him.
                    MERCY
Mercy. Mercy...EVER ENDURING...NEVER GOING TO LEAVE...NEVER GOING TO CHANGE... MERCY in the day of judgement...That is our deepest need at the very deepest core of our being. We need a God that showed his MERCY through Jesus Christ.
So how does that apply to a combine date?
I was walking back to the truck from our lunch date in the combine and looked down to avoid an epic fall over the stalks and my eyes landed on a pretty precious site.

There it was. I knew God laid that little broken cob at my feet for a reason. God does speak in a still small voice.

It has been a really challenging year for our family. He has stretched our faith and taught us how to trust in the midst of real-bold faced-uncertainty in several areas of life. Adoption. He showed himself to us in FAITHFULNESS. Scoliosis. He showed us his MERCY.

 

That little broken cob spoke to my soul. Not only had the ear gone through the wind, heat, rain & storms this summer but it went through the COMBINE. The stalk was cut off and stripped. The ear was battered and everything of value was taken away... The remains were spewed out the back of the combine. Considered unwanted... and tossed among the refuse. That is not God's children. Those precious kernels stayed right where God had placed them. PERFECT. Broken cob and all. Not a scratch on them. Still attached. Still perfectly placed...still with infinite value. Just the way that they were created... even in the midst of a mess. 

MERCY

Mercy for the fatherless kids a world away and Mercy for the kids around our kitchen table this morning. Mercy in the brokenness that life can bring. Mercy in the healing that LOVE brings from the brokenness.

Love, compassion, faithfulness ... those things are needed and necessary. Desperately needed and necessary.

But I think this Thanksgiving...Mercy gets the top of my list.

Not that everything worked out perfectly like I wanted.

His MERCY doesn't work that way.

MERCY in the wounding itself.

WHAT?!? How can bad stuff be God's mercy. 

Abandonment isn't merciful.

Scoliosis isn't merciful.

BUT

In the wounding, God shows us more of Himself.

In the wounding, God draws us to Himself.

In the wounding, we find that He is the Great Physician.

...and the Father to the Fatherless

And sometimes without the wounds-we would never know the power or the need for Mercy.

For ourselves and for those around us.

So, we thank God in ALL things.

 

" The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me; thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever; forsake not the works of thine own hands."

 ~ Psalm 138:8

 

What God starts He is faithful to finish. PEFECTLY.