Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:24 NKJV.

See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and His arm rules for Him. See, His reward is with Him, and His recompense accompanies Him. He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart; He gently leads those that have young. Isaiah 40:10-11.

I loved this in You Are the Beloved by Henri Nouwen: “God sent Jesus to make free persons of us. He has chosen compassion as the way to freedom. That is a great deal more radical than you might at first imagine. It means that God wanted to liberate us, not by removing our suffering from us, but by sharing it with us. Jesus is God-who-suffers-with-us. Over time, the word sympathizing has become a somewhat feeble way of expressing the reality of “suffering with” someone. Nowadays, when someone says: “I have sympathy for you,” it has a rather distant ring about it. The feeling, at least for me, is of someone looking down from above. The words original meaning of “suffering together with someone” has been partly lost. That’s why I’ve opted for the word compassion. It’s warmer, more intimate, and closer. It’s taking part in the suffering of the other, being totally a fellow human being in suffering…Jesus is the revelation of God’s unending, unconditional love for us human beings. Everything that Jesus has done, said, and undergone is meant to show us that the love we most long for is given to us by God, not because we deserved it, but because God is a God of love.”

Can we appreciate how totally opposite that compassion and love is from what is in our chapter, Ezekiel 35…ancient hostility? Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, is telling the nation Edom through Ezekiel how wrong it is to harbor ancient hatreds and not hating bloodshed but pursuing bloodshed. Could that not apply to nations today? The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir; prophesy against it and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Mount Seir, and I will stretch out My hand against you and make you a desolate waste. I will turn your towns into ruins and you will be desolate. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Because you harbored an ancient hostility and delivered the Israelites over to the sword at the time of their calamity, the time their punishment reached its climax, therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I will give you over to bloodshed and it will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you…Because you have said, “These two nations and countries will be ours and we will take possession of them,” even though I the Lord was there, therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I will treat you in accordance with the anger and jealousy you showed in your hatred of them and I will make Myself known among them when I judge you. Then you will know that I the Lord have heard all the contemptible things you have said against the mountains of Israel. You said, “They have been laid waste and have been given over to us to devour.” You boasted against Me and spoke against Me without restraint, and I heard it. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: While the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. Because you rejoiced when the inheritance of Israel became desolate, that is how I will treat you. You will be desolate, Mount Seir, you and all of Edom. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’” v. 1-6, 10-15. Can we see that same thing today among nations trying to overthrow other nations? No compassion. And God sees and hears and has compassion.

This morning God was asking me to remember the joy, the wonder, the trust, the excitement of seeing His creation as a child. Do you remember the simple joy of watching butterflies among flowers? Of seeing the green of the grass and the blue of the sky and watching clouds make interesting animal shapes? Can we delight anew in Him and trust Him for the compassions and love He shows every single day? The problems we humans bring will still be there weighing us down. But as we look to Creator God we can remember! He will bring healing to every nation and it will be good. We can return or find anew that simple trust found only in Him. Turn to Him. He’s here. Always! Let Him rekindle joy in your heart and notice anew the beauty He has made. It will lift your heart sorely in need of Him.