Time Out

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity."  (Jeremiah 29:11-13)

I watch my three-year old granddaughter refuse to pick up something she has thrown on the kitchen floor.  Her mom asks once, then twice.  Defiant, my granddaughter folds her arms across her chest and sticks out her lower lip.  Her mother pulls out a chair from the table and sets it in the middle of the room.  "Time out!" she says and puts my granddaughter on the chair.  "Five minutes," as she sets the timer and continues getting dinner ready.  Although my granddaughter is never out of her mom's sight or presence, I am sure she feels all alone.  But she isn't; her mom is right there with her.

As I watched this unfold in my daughter-in-law's kitchen, I was reminded of the words spoken by our Lord through the prophet Jeremiah.  Israel had deliberately, defiantly disobeyed God until He had no choice but to give them a 'time-out'.  When these words of future hope were spoken to them they were living in captivity in Babylon.  I imagine they felt abandoned and forsaken by the Lord.  Yet three times in this passage in Jeremiah we read that God says: 

"I carried you into exile".

Carried...carried...carried...

You cannot carry someone if you don't go with them - it is not possible.

Beloved,

if you are in exile  - in 'time out' - because of disobedience...

if you feel alone and abandoned by God...

He is with you, even in these times.  He has promised never to leave or forsake you. 

Never. 

He has said by the Psalmist, even if you make your bed in the depths, He is there. (Ps. 139)

He has said because of His mercy He will not abandon you or forget you.  (Deut. 4:29)

And He has said that if you seek Him with all your heart He will be found by you and will bring you back from captivity. (Jeremiah 29:12-14)

Lent is a season for all of us to consider we are but dust and ashes; out of dust we came and to dust we will return. 

Perhaps for some of us it is also a time to turn back to the God who has never forsaken us or left us.  A time to seek Him with all our hearts; to pray; repent; return.

At the end of this season looms the Cross, the wonderful Cross. 

The symbol of hope and a future through the shed blood of our Lord,

Himself forsaken...

so we would never have to be.