I Will Rejoice Even When Joy Makes No Sense

“Though the fig tree  does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are sheep on the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior” –Habakkuk 3:17, 18, NIV.

The community of Slave Lake in northern Alberta has virtually disappeared off the map. A brush fire, pushed by strong winds, roared through the town of 7,000, and wiped out most of the major buildings and many homes.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/prairies/slave-lake-reeling-as-alberta-wildfires-cause-devastating-destruction/article2023343/

As I read the verses for this morning I wondered how many residents of that community are rejoicing in the Lord.

I pray constantly for a writer friend, Lisa Mikitarian, and her husband, Sam, as they search for their daughter, Katalina, who went missing last week.

http://www.nvdaily.com/news/2011/05/police-aiding-in-familys-search-for-missing-woodstock-woman.php/

It’s not easy to rejoice in these circumstances.

I don’t know about the people in Slave Lake, but I do know that Lisa and Sam have a strong faith in a God who does the impossible and who, though we don’t always understand His ways, turns the unthinkable into what will ultimately bring Him glory and work for the benefit of His children.

It’s the nature of faith–the believing even when we don’t see, the hoping when human hope fades, the rock when everything crumbles like dust, the knowing in the face of the unknowable.

Lord, for those who face an “empty stall,” a “flattened field” today, may their faith be strengthened by the assurance that they can rejoice in a trustworthy God who will come through for them even in the midst of difficult circumstances.