Reflection for Saturday 20 Feb 2021

RAISED UP FROM THE DUST

“There is no Holy One like the Lord, no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God”

(1 Samuel: 2:2)

Hannah’s words are part of a hymn of praise offered up to God after he heard her fervent prayers to conceive a child. 1 Samuel 2:1-10)

Her son Samuel has been born and out of a prayer of grief in a time of bareness, comes a prayer of joy in the miracle of new life.

In her grief her prayer focused on herself, in her joy, her prayer now includes all who suffer.

The feeble, the poor, the needy, all of them will be raised up from the dust; no one will be left on the ash heap.

When we are in the ash heap, looking up and around is almost impossible. All we can do is get though the day as best we can. Doing so uses up all our emotional resources and there’s nothing left over.

But, when we start to feel our burdens lifted, when God raises us up from the dust, we begin to notice the pain of others.

There is that mysterious exchange that we who have been wounded, became wounded healers.

Those who have been cancer sufferers can walk alongside the newly diagnosed.

Those who have come through addiction can reach out to support those who are still struggling.

Those whose lives have been devastated by loss, can bring words of comfort and encouragement to those still walking through the shadow of death.

Let us pray,

God of great reversals, you bring transformation, relief, peace, and joy at times that are utterly unexpected.

When we find ourselves in the ash heap, grant us your peace, assure us of your promises, give us hope to sustain us.

After we have been raised up from the dust, never let us forget what it was like to be so down.

Use our remembering to reach back and help others, to sit beside them until they too know the grace of your transforming love, Amen.

God bless your day, may you rejoice in it.