By, Tamah Bryant
For the past few months, my youngest and I have fallen into a morning routine of snuggling in his bed before we then head to my bed and snuggle some more under the blankets and read some Scripture, and pray over the day before the hustle and bustle of making breakfast, making lunches and getting out the door to go to school. His father and I are both teaching fifth grade at his school and this has been an extra special year. One I am sure I will cherish in my memories for the rest of my life.
I know this season will not last forever. Gideon will not always want his momma to snuggle him while he wakes up. He will grow too old to jump in my bed and lay his head on my shoulder while I read to him. I will not always work in a school where I can see him all throughout the day and get hugs from him on the playground or “dab him up” while I pass him in the hall walking with his class. But I can this year and I am thoroughly enjoying it.
There are moments God has created me for that I hold in my heart. Moments that cause me to cry out in gratitude and praise to God. How could He bless me as He has? I am so undeserving of His lavish love toward me.
But on the other hand, there are moments God has created me for that have nearly torn my heart in two. Moments when I thought I would not be able to catch my next breath and I did not see any way this trial could possibly turn out for my good and for the glory of God. Our family has seen its share of testing and very dark days.
Two things I have learned when it comes to blessing seasons and trial seasons.
Neither one of them lasts forever.
But both of them cause me to call out to God. Times of blessing give me a glimpse of heaven and how beautiful it will be to dwell with Jesus for eternity. Times of trial cause me to long for heaven and the day I will not struggle with the principalities and darkness of this present world.
I read something so beautiful in my morning devotions with Gideon last week in John 12:27-28. Jesus had just raised Lazarus from the dead in chapter 11, which did not make the Pharisees very happy, and their plotting to kill Jesus intensified. Eventually, Jesus made His entry into Jerusalem on a donkey for Passover on what we remember as Palm Sunday. There were crowds of people who had come to see Jesus, and at some point, He addresses the people. Jesus knew full well what was on the other side of this moment. The fellowship with his beloved disciples, the betrayal, the beating, the torture, the burden of all our sins that would be placed on Him, the moment on the cross when His Father would turn away from Him, the agony of not only His pain but seeing His mother’s heart, whom He loved so dearly, break at the sight of her Son on the cross.
There were some Greeks who were seeking Him and He took a moment to address the crowd. At the end of His message, He spoke these words:
“Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say?
Father, save Me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying,
I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
I read those verses over and over again. “But for this cause came I unto this hour” Jesus knew that the purpose of His whole life on earth was for this hour. An agonizing hour I cannot even begin to fathom. He wasn’t excited about it. His soul was troubled and He asked His Father to save Him from it. AND YET…His conclusion was “Father, glorify Thy name.”
God had a purpose for His agony. And Jesus, so beautifully endured the cross that should have been mine and glorified His Father with every breath He took and every word He spoke.
I couldn’t help but think that God has a cause for every “hour” I experience. Those verses spoke deeply in my heart and caused me to want to glorify my Father in heaven with whatever hour He has prepared me for. On the other side of that hour for Jesus, was fellowship with His Father. Jesus did not allow the trial ahead of Him to rob Him of that reality.
On the other side of this world filled with tribulation is eternity with Jesus. What could be better than that? My hardest day cannot compare with the glory that is to come.
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