Words to Grow On...

While we're not ready yet to reveal Baby Weaver's name, our minds are full of waiting for this little one and what God might do with her life as she grows, so I wanted to write this week about the verses we have chosen as especially hers.

Awhile ago, I don't remember exactly where or when, I heard about a family that chose a verse for each of their children. They gave these verses like a gift when the child was born, spoke these words over the child, and asked that the verses would characterize the child's life.

To understand the story of the verses we chose, you have to go back almost a year ago. I had been sick since a few weeks before Christmas with mysterious dizziness, joint pain, fatigue, numbness, and weakness. Up to this point in my life, I had been incredibly healthy. I had never been sick for more than a few days, had  taken antibiotics a handful of times, had never broken a bone, never been to the ER.

All of the sudden, I was undergoing tests at the ER, cat scans, blood tests, and visits with specialists! I felt like the life that stretched before me was no longer a fertile field waiting to grow but a desolate wasteland of uncertainty, unidentified illness, and a failing immune system. I questioned if I'd ever get back to the way I had felt before, if we'd ever be able to have babies if my immune system couldn't stabilize, even if I could continue to work with the crushing anxiety that came when the mysterious symptoms arose. I had never been so desperate to hear from God.

As I asked the Holy Spirit for any kind of nourishment, he kept bringing Jeremiah 33 to mind. I didn't recognize the reference, but I remember feeling swept up in God's care when I read the chapter's heading: "Promise of Restoration."

I read hungrily. The chapter begins with nightmarish visions of dead bodies, city under siege, God hiding his face from the city he loved. But as suddenly as it starts, it begins painting a picture of everything being put right again, much like a magical world when a deep curse is broken and all is suddenly awash in green again.

God would transform, could recreate life, so much so that people would "tremble at the abundant peace and prosperity" God would again give. The restoration passage culminated with giving the reason for the restoration: a righteous branch from David's line, a priest and king who could make all things new. I knew this promise: Jesus. These words were like water on a parched tongue. I read them over and over and over, until one day, I could look back and say God truly brought them to fruition in my life. I became pregnant, God healed me of my autoimmune issues, and I was myself again.

Fast forward to choosing a name for our firstborn. We had worked with variation upon variations of first and middle names, toying with sounds and meanings until we finally came up with one that meant to us: God is a promise of new life.

Then came the decision to find a verse to go along with it. The words from the winter came gently, and we decided on Jeremiah 33: 10-16:

¹⁰ “This is what the Lord says: ‘You say about this place, “It is a desolate waste, without people or animals.” Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more ¹¹ the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord, saying,

“Give thanks to the Lord Almighty,
    for the Lord is good;
    his love endures forever.”

For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before,’ says the Lord.

¹² “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In this place, desolate and without people or animals—in all its towns there will again be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks. ¹³ In the towns of the hill country, of the western foothills and of the Negev, in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah, flocks will again pass under the hand of the one who counts them,’ says the Lord.

¹⁴ “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.

¹⁵ “‘In those days and at that time
    I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line;
    he will do what is just and right in the land.
¹⁶ In those days Judah will be saved
    and Jerusalem will live in safety.
This is the name by which it^[c] will be called:
    The Lord Our Righteous Savior.’

I think my favorite part is when the Lord says, "You say about this place, 'It is a desolate waste....yet..." When I look at my baby girl, when I mouth her name and think of the words we've chosen for her to wear her whole life, I want to remember that what I call a desolate waste is always full of the possibility of God's restoration and achingly new life. 

Whether it is a relationship that seems beyond repair, a world that seems incredibly chaotic, a situation that seems completely devoid of the possibility of redemption, the fact that our child is spinning inside a body that should not have been quiet enough to hold her is a testimony to the fact that God promises restoration and does not fail to provide it. We pray that her life will be one of reminding the most desolate that Jesus can bring life into wastelands now and will one day completely fulfill his promise to make all right once again.

I can't wait to introduce our promise of new life to you. Until then, I hope the words we want her to live into, to grow on can nourish you like they have done for us. Whatever you are facing today, know that restoration is possible when The Lord Our Righteous Savior walks into what we have called impossible waste. There is always, mercifully always, a "yet."