Remember

 When life looks like this, barren and bleak:

 

Remember that this is not the end of the story.

God redeems.

 

Though the fig tree should not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

  and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

   and there be no herd in the stalls,

yet

   I will rejoice in the LORD;

I will take joy

       in the God of my salvation.

GOD, the Lord, is my strength,

He makes my feet like the deer's,

He makes me tread

               on my high places.

                       Habakkuk 3. 17-19

 

Our hope is not dependent on circumstances or wishful thinking.  But on the Almighty who transcends what we can see and on Whom we can stake our lives. 

Sometimes we have to wait

       until everything is ready

      ... or we are ready.

Sometimes we just need

           to read the story backwards.

And remember God's faithfulness,

    spelled out in the seasons

and the chronicle of our lives.