From the Brow of Heaven

From the Brow of Heaven

And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches, which hath devoured her fruit, so that she hath no strong rod to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation.  Ezekiel 19:14

 

Ah, God’s broken heart.  This chapter is an expression of the Lord’s deep sorrow. His cries of grief.  Israel has no fruit, she has no scepter to rule.  By her own doing, she is not living up to the potential of what she could, what Jehovah has desired for her, provided for and enabled her to accomplish.  This brings deep mourning and lamentation to the Lord.

 

Many an evening I stand at the brow of the hill where our house is in Sierra Leone.  I look out over the town and I watch the the children playing — just being children.  And I weep.  Due to circumstances beyond their control, and by nothing of their own doing, they will never reach  the potential of what they could be.  Just by chance of birth they are in the sixth poorest nation and cannot afford education for their children.  The potential given them by God can never be realized.  It deeply breaks my heart.  In a very small portion, I understand Jehovah’s lamentation. 

And what of the Lord’s Christian children?  Does he stand at the brow of Heaven and watch the children He bought with His blood and lament the loss of potential because His children don’t make full use of what is available to them?  Their education has been bought and paid for, and is fully available.  Are they content to stay children rather than grow “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ?”  (Ephesians 4:13).

What about me?  Am I content to stay a Christian child?  Am I willing to put in the effort to grow and mature in the Lord?  Do I desire the full potential He has given me?  Let me not bring grief and lament to my Lovely Lord Jesus by not living up to the potential He has provided for me.

 

Below are some of our beautiful children.