JUNE 12, 2016

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

EZRA 1-2

The Israelites have been in captivity in Babylon for seventy years. As promised by God they are given a way to return via Cyrus overthrow of Babylon, he gives the following proclamation

“ ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. 3Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. 4And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’ ”

JOHN 19:23-42

Jesus' last act is to ensure the care of his mother...

25Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman,^b here is your son,” 27and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

 

JOURNAL 

I can only imagine that the Israelites have given up hope...they have seen all the glory and wonder of their reign and domination come to an end and for seventy years there is no hope...then a foreign king overthrows Babylon and gives a proclamation that sets them free to go back and set up the temple. God intervenes in a way no one would ever imagine.

Here Jesus hangs...the dreams of his mother and disciples fading as he slowly dies. The words spoken to John to care for his mother must have been the last straw in knowing...this is it. He is going to die, the dream is over...

Reading these verses I can't help but see the pages of my own life juxtaposed...how there have been times when I felt that my dreams were gone and felt hopeless.  Also how God provides a way where I never saw one...it is in this hope that I am to live the rest of my days. God's ways are not man's ways. Both in the times of plenty and in the times of struggle.

8“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,”

~ Isaiah 55:8