Regeneration

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Restore us, O God; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.” 
Psalm 80:3, New International Version

This picture is over 10 years old.  It is a picture of some of the area close to Mount Saint Helens.  The devastation caused by the mountain’s eruption, in 1980, is still very visible today, 37 years later.  The pyro-clastic blast jettisoned huge pieces of the mountain into the air, flying miles, to land like so many massive pimples on the valley floor today.  The mountainsides were scoured clean of flora, and a deep ash covered what had been lush forests full of wildlife.

Mount Saint Helens National Monument, Washington

Even so, the land began to heal.  Vegetation was restored.  Biologists and botanists suggest that many of the seeds were in underground ‘storehouses’—tunnels made by ground squirrels, mice, and other burrowers.  Douglas fir seedlings like heat to germinate, I’m told.

I have felt like scorched earth a time or two.  Maybe more.  I have felt lifeless.  I struggle still with old, settled habits and thought patterns, etched deep into me from years of depression.  However, our God is a God of restoration; a God of new life; a God of a New Creation.

How important it is for us to believe the Lord; to trust the Lord to restore us, his face shining upon us—divine light blessing us.  That is part of the Aaronic blessing, after all: “May the Lord make his face shine upon you.  And give you peace.”

Shine, Light of the World.  Shine upon us and illuminate our souls with the healing light of your presence today.  Shine upon us and restore hope, joy, peace, and purpose to our living as your children in the world.  Restore us indeed, O God, not to what we were…but to what you have made us to be in Christ Jesus—children of a father’s heart, a Father-God’s heart at that.

Know the Lord’s light, children of God.  Know the Lord’s restorative elixir in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  How much he loves you!

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, CO